Halkegenia Online Arrun Parallel Story: Melancholy Heart
by zero0hero
Summary: Shouichi Saitou, eighty years old, had been counting down the last of his days without regrets. Content to while away his time playing full dive games with his granddaughter Nanami until the fateful day of the Transition. Born again as the Sylph Youth Saitou, he must confront his past to face the one thing he had never prepared for. A future. Occurs parallel to v2.0 ending.
1. Chapter 1

So I'm back again, and as a breather between arcs I've decided to write this. The first official Arrun Parallel Story to have a little bit of fun with something a little more relaxed. This story will comprise three updates and be left a little open ended as it's meant to be a snap shot into the lives of some minor, and no so minor, characters.

For those who aren't in the know, I suggest looking up and reading the short SAO side story manga "Ceramic Heart" available on many manga hosting sites and also checking the side story "Old Heart, Young Eyes" written by LGear and available in the Arc 1 Chapter List.

Thanks everyone and please enjoy.

Halkegenia Online – Arrun Parallel Story - Melancholy Heart - Part 1

"Hmm? I'm sorry, could you say that again?" Doctor Shouichi Saitou apologized as he looked up from his clipboard and right into a betrayed glare delivered by a certain blue haired Sylph. That got his full and undivided attention.

Since moving to Arrun, it had become their tradition, his and his granddaughter's, to eat lunch together every day, and today was no exception. Nanami arriving early with a box lunch in hand and an umbrella to ward off the harsh noonday sun just as he finished with his morning staff meeting at the Central Hospital.

But something about her mood today was not quite right. Restless.

"Ah, Nana- I mean, Et-chan, is something wrong?" It wasn't like her to look so upset.

Furuya Nanami, Lumis Eterne, or simply 'Et-chan' to the Faeries of ALfheim, held her glare for a moment longer before releasing a small sigh, accompanied by a shake of the head that sent soft azure hair fanning gracefully. "I asked if you've been getting enough sleep."

"Sleep?" Saitou blinked in the light of the hospital hallway.

"Sleep. _Rest_. You haven't been back to the house in ages." His granddaughter's voice grew irritable. "It seems like the only time I ever see you lately is when I bring you lunch. I'm worried that you're overworking yourself."

Saitou opened his mouth to tell her that she needn't worry, before thinking better of it. It wouldn't be fair to just pay Nanami lip service. Especially when they were one another's only family.

"It isn't like I mean to be away so much, Et-chan. My work has simply been getting ahead of me lately is all." Ever since they'd made the move to Arrun in point of fact. What they said about the Big City held true even when that city was only twenty thousand people. "But don't worry, I am taking care of myself." He smiled gently. "That is, when you aren't taking care of me."

Eterne nodded her head reluctantly, but nonetheless looked far from happy.

Among the professions that the Fae were lacking in were fully trained physicians. Physicians such as himself, and even more so, Physicians who were comfortable with a less Digital World than the fully networked clinics and hospitals crammed full of advanced automation that had risen up all over Japan in the last decade, an effort to meet the demands of a growing elderly population.

They had many former players with paramedic experience and others with a high enough skill in water and holy type magics to have become knowledgeable in treating a host of injuries in this world. The Undines especially had an innate knack for the practices of healing.

But that wasn't enough on its own to see to the health and well being of the populace. It was essential that a doctor know the 'how' of treating their patients, it was just as important that they understand the 'why'. The knowledge gifted by their transformation into Faeries had seen to the former, but neglected the latter, an oversight that Saitou had been devoting himself to remedying.

For a man who had devoted his human life to the study of medicine, to its practice, and to its teaching, it had seemed most fitting to Saitou that he make it his purpose in this world as well.

While their changed physiology had limited the utility of some of his expertise, the difference in gross anatomy between Fae and humans, much as the differences between humans and many other mammals, were not so great as to render that knowledge entirely useless so long as the differences were kept in mind. More than that, the methodology of good medical practice was a constant across worlds and species, and that was something that he had spent no end of effort on impressing upon his eager new pupils.

The Fae Lords had appreciated this as well, appointing the Medical Professionals to oversee the clinics and hospitals that had sprung up in each of the Faerie settlements. Arrun's Central Hospital, the largest and likely best staffed by virtue of the city's population, had even begun to branch into multiple specialties, each staffed by a chief physician and their assistant doctors and students.

It was by no means a perfect system, Saitou had thought, but they didn't have the luxury of a fully qualified staff. The best that could be done was to be sure that plenty of oversight was given, and that the students gained competence as quickly as possible.

That had meant long hours and extra shifts for one Doctor Shouichi Saitou, but if it came with the peace of mind that his students would know what to do in an emergency, then so be it. He simply hadn't though to realize that Nanami might not see it the same way.

"So when was it?" Eterne pressed him for an answer, taking one half step forward, and then another. "When's the last time you got some rest?"

"It's fine, Et-chan, I've been napping between shifts in a spare room."

There were plenty of those around, thankfully, the hospital had been established in one of the larger buildings, with room reserved to expand as the staff saw fit. Nor was Saitou the only one who regularly stayed at the hospital around the clock.

Eterne pursed her lips. "That's not fine at all! You've been taking shifts back to back for weeks. There's no way you've been getting more than four or five hours of sleep a night like that." Anger defused into worry. "You might be young again, Jii-chan, but you can't keep that up forever. And even if you can, its going to make you sloppy. So if you won't do it for yourself, think a little bit about your patients, okay?"

Shouichi paused, it had been so long, he'd forgotten just how much like her mother Nanami could be. The stubbornness as well. Which meant he wasn't going to win.

Smiling good naturedly, Saitou gave a small bow of the head. "You're probably right. I'm sorry Et-chan."

"I don't want you to apologize for it." Eterne grumbled. "I want you to take better care of yourself. I don't want to you get set in bad habits."

The serious set of her face made Saitou chuckle as they proceeded back down the hall, there was a garden nearby that he preferred to take his lunch in. It was secluded, but his students would know where to find him if he was needed. "I think it's a little bit too late for that . . . Nanami." He poked at his granddaughter's real name, chuckling again as she huffed. As with most of their newborn race, Nanami had been quick to adopt the habit of reserving her real name for private use among close friends. And Saitou, being supportive of his granddaughter, had mostly respected that wish. "Don't you know it's hard for the elderly to change?"

"Says the old man who was so eager to try those 'New Fangled Full Dive Games'." Eterne stuck out her tongue.

Point taken, Saitou thought, habitually running a hand along the smooth line of his jaw, reminded that when he looked in the mirror every morning it was the soft, still slightly childish features of a teenage boy that greeted him. And of course, the youthful body to go along with that face.

If he was being honest with himself, Nanami wasn't wrong to be concerned. He had been growing fatigued lately. Even a healthy person could only work themselves so hard for so long. And in the meantime, he had been neglecting Nanami as well, which had never been his intention in taking this job. Far from it, he'd been eager to take up his profession once more so that he could provide for himself and his granddaughter.

It wasn't that he was averse to taking a little time off, it was simply a question of what he would do with himself if he wasn't working. After over a decade of retirement and feelings of uselessness, trapped in a feeble body that barely permitted him to perform the simplest tasks for himself, he wasn't eager to be still for even one moment.

He recalled old hobbies that he'd acquired after retirement, most had simply lost their appeal now that he wasn't confined to his own home. What else was there?

Fishing? He'd never really had the patience for it, even as an old man.

He enjoyed reading immensely, but he couldn't imagine reading all day. The isolation simply didn't appeal to him and he'd have started to feel useless soon enough.

He'd never been much for the arts. By his own admission he was tone deaf, and even at her kindest, Nanami, bless her heart, had been brutally honest about his complete lack of culinary ability.

He would have preferred doting on his granddaughter now that things were a little safer and more settled, perhaps taking her to see Cadenza, he'd read that the orchestra that had been formed in the wake of the Transition had been shaping up nicely, and there was the harlequinade that had been founded along with the Cait Syth that was fast gaining popularity among the populace of Tristain, human and Faerie alike.

But Saitou couldn't imagine Nanami, however much she loved him, would want to spend that much time around her old grandfather. Playing a game was one thing, living in this world was quite another. Nanami would always have him at her side when she needed him, but she also had her own friends, and her own life to live, he'd come to realize over these past weeks. She wasn't the little girl sitting on his knee anymore.

That left only his work to fill his time.

'All of these young people.' Saitou thought as they reached the gardens and he helped Eterne to lay out a blanket beneath the shade of a maple tree. The hot summer was beginning to set in. 'So busy forging ahead.' Making new lives for themselves.

Nanami had told him once that she thought he had a real advantage in this world having already been an old man in his past life. It meant that he had left that other world with his affairs settled and his life fulfilled and needn't worry about those things now. But it seemed like there were advantages to being young as well. Young people grew up knowing that they had a whole life ahead of them, while the Sylph Saitou was still coming to grips with what that meant.

He hadn't thought about it much at first, of course much too occupied with comforting his granddaughter and helping those in need. But as the weeks turned to months, and as plans were settled for winter, as the likely future had pushed past the outer limits of the time he'd once had remaining . . .

'Two years, at most.' Saitou had been told not so long ago by a physician who had worked beneath him before he'd retired. At that time, he did not remember being frightened by the idea of death. He'd done as much as anyone to live his life with purpose, and had done what he'd set out to do. He could not remember many things he'd regretted in what he'd thought were his final days.

Which meant that now, rather paradoxically, he'd begun to find himself at a loss when confronted by the prospect of another five or six decades of life. It was like he had been approaching the finish line of a long race, satisfied with his standing, only for the end posts to suddenly be moved. And now, he hardly knew what to do with his second wind.

Nanami offered him first choice of the contents of the box lunch, eagerly biting into a heavily pickled plumb while Nanami watched on in awe.

"I think my mouth would eat itself if I bit into one of those." She mused. "How can you stand something like that Jii-chan?"

"Your pallet forms in your early years." Saitou said as he savored the intense flavor. "Youngsters should try broadening their tastes. After all, they say the point of life is to experience." Saitou teased gently as he accepted a cup of unsweetened tea.

"And shouldn't the elderly be avoiding spicy things?" Nanami shot back with an amused look.

Saitou wasn't quite sure what she was talking about before discovering that the tempura he was eating had in fact been wrapped around a hot pepper. The Sylph youth's eyes suddenly watered as he downed his tea and then poured himself a second helping and drank that too.

"Cou-cough-! You -cough- could have warned me Et-chan!" How was it that kids these days put it? It had been a real 'low blow' not to point that out!

"I thought you knew, Jii-chan." Nanami answered composedly as she bit into her own pepper with hardly a bat of the eye. "Didn't you also know that Sylvain's unique cuisine selection in ALO was themed around being spicy?"

"Yes, but -cough-, knowing and _knowing_ are too different things." Wiping at his still burning lips with the cuff of his shirt. There had been a time when he'd enjoyed such things, but he'd lost that taste in his fifties.

"Speaking of experience." Nanami waited for his coughing fit to subside. "How are your students coming along, Jii-chan?"

Saitou gave the question some thought, not that it hadn't been at the forefront of his mind, but Nanami was an outside observer, so he wanted to make his explanation clear. "About as well as I could expect." He decided slowly. "They're all very hard workers, I think most of them will make fine physicians if they can merge the knowledge they've been given with what they can learn here."

"Most of them?" Naturally, Nanami would notice.

Saitou sighed softly, he did not like to speak ill of anyone, least of all people who had humbly asked for his help. "A few are, how to put it . . . over eager with themselves. They don't mean any ill but . . . "

"They're getting big headed." Nanami finished knowingly.

"Yes." Saitou was almost surprised. "But how . . . ?" No, he should have known that about Nanami as well, always an observant child.

Eterne shook her head. "I see it a lot too. It's the same problem with powerful mages." To demonstrate her point, Nanami snapped her fingers, generating a small spark of light as a prepared barrier spell unfolded beside her. Placing her cup on the floating translucent surface as if it were a table, the self style "Barrier Maiden" smiled. "Basically, they're so impressed with what they can do now, it's hard for them to accept that they don't know everything there is to know."

Saitou nodded in agreement. "They mean well, but it's the difference between Knowledge and Wisdom. One can memorize knowledge by rote, but one must acquire wisdom by experience. It's simply very easy to confuse the two in our state." He decided thoughtfully. He was at an advantage in the regard, he had a lifetime to fall back on, many of the players were still relatively young and had acquired their skill too easily, without appreciation for their own limits.

Like flying. It felt so natural, like he'd been born with it, and likewise with his mastery of healing magic, instructions bubbling to the surface, sometimes so subtly he didn't realize it wasn't something he'd learned in school until he remembered that he was channeling magic into a wound to promote healing, or sensing pulse and breathing with hearing that was literally super human.

It was easy to get giddy over powers like that. And Saitou had been far from mastery of any of his magic. Many of his pupils were in fact much more skilled in that regard, struggling to teach him the full exploits of magic while he instructed them in medicine.

"If you think you know best, you don't want to listen to someone else." Eterne concluded. "Honestly, I'm surprise there aren't a lot more narcissists because of it."

"The best medicine for it is a harsh taste of reality." Saitou advised. "The trick to humble them in a way that no one gets hurt."

"That's true." Eterne said. "Leafa-chan told me it's how the watch treats new recruits in all of their training exercises. I just wonder . . ."

A wistful look entered his granddaughter's eyes, leaving Saitou curious. "Oh?"

"I just thought . . . Well, you know how the Caits have all their cat instincts and Imps can get agoraphobic?"

"It's not actually so severe as a phobia." Saitou corrected, having dealt with more than a few imps since coming to Arrun. They certainly were most at ease at night and in smaller spaces, but he hadn't known many who were bothered by being under an open sky. They'd be fine Faeries then, he mused, scared to fly.

"But it _is_ an instinct isn't it?" Eterne wondered. "That means it's always there. You can overcome it, push against it, but it's always at the back of your head."

"You're talking about nature versus nurture." Saitou realized. He'd been having this talk on and off with his colleagues for weeks now.

"I guess so." Eterne admitted. "It's hard not to, I mean . . ." She looked up at the sky. "About five hundred meters up, there's a good cross breeze heading East right now." Saitou blinked quickly, pondering his granddaughter's prediction. He couldn't see it for himself, though he knew more than one Sylph who could. "What we see and how we see it effects what we think about, right?"

It was one of Kiriyu's very favorite subjects, speculating on just how their Faerie racial senses worked. Either some additional component of the eyes or some kind of synasthesia between whatever magic organ performed the sensing and the traditionally perceived senses.

"And what we know also changes how we act and who we are. I guess . . ." Eterne laughed a little nervously. "I've been wondering recently what that's doing to us."

Saitou closed his eyes, holding his tea in one hand. "My. Such a serious topic for lunch time. You've certainly been meditating on exalted matters."

His granddaughter wasn't wrong though. He'd had the opportunity to observe it in himself. His posture, they way he walked and moved, he'd realized, had begun to change since coming to inhabit this body. As he remembered what it was like to be coordinated enough to catch himself in a fall, and resilient enough to not be hurt if he didn't. He still saw the signs in his little habits, and those of the people around him, though he doubted anyone else did.

"Sorry." Nanami looked down at her own hands. "It just seemed like the right time to ask about it."

"Don't be sorry. I think you're right to wonder about it. But I don't think you should worry too much either, because . . ." He looked her in the eyes as he reached out to squeeze her hand. "You are still Furuya Nanami, my granddaughter, and I am still Shouichi Saitou, your grandfather. Just as we were yesterday, just as we were a month ago, just as we were a year ago, and just as we were the day you were born. Of course we've changed." He smiled kindly, they'd changed more than most as a matter of fact. "Every living thing changes. The only difference is how quickly it happens."

At first his words didn't seem to penetrate his granddaughters melancholy, but slowly, her head began to nod. "Right. I guess I just wanted to hear someone say it."

"As long as you haven't gotten a big head like those others, I don't think you have anything to worry about, Nanami." He promised her.

"Like that's going to happen as long as I have you around, Jii-chan." She told him, leaning against him like she had when she was just a child.

First he'd taken care of her, then, she'd taken care of him. It was nice that now they could take care of each other. Maybe he would make some time for himself. He didn't have to spend it all with Nanami after all, he could go and try something new whenever he liked.

"Hmm? I something wrong Saitou-kun?" Eterne asked him.

"No. Nothing at all." Saitou promised her. "I think you're right though. It's good for me to spend some time away from work." Being with family never failed to improve his mood. "I'll see about taking a day off. Think of something special you'd like to do, whatever you want."

"Anything?" Nanami looked unconvinced.

"_Anything_." Saitou promised standing up slowly to stretch. "I have an appointment to keep with a patient. But I promise I'll make it home for dinner tonight, so why don't we go out?"

Seeing his granddaughter's eagerness, he knew that she would be okay too. Nanami's personality was just too _strong_ to be changed by a little thing like becoming a Faerie. The thought put him at ease, lifted his spirits as he checked his clipboard once more.

He knew that this patient was to be handled with a degree of discretion. That had been the instructions sent down directly from the Fae Lords. It did trouble him that Lady Sakuya didn't trust him to maintain doctor patient confidentiality, but reading the file started to make things clear.

'The mother requested me by name.' He mused as he read the short, very short, case file. Not that any of the Fae had long case histories. It wasn't really that strange. Between his help autopsying the undead, murder victims, and Spriggan Assassin, treatment of the injured returning from Albion, and his regular medical practice, he was the closest thing to an authority on the Fae physiology and the likeliest to detect anything out of place, even among the Undines. What was odd was that they would know to ask for him by name.

'A Maeve . . ." He read the race of the daughter. Extremely rare. The rumor was that they were a special beta test of the Alf race and that only a handful existed. 'Ah, that would be why.' He read the name of the mother again, feeling a little surprised to see that the girl known as the White Flash had a daughter. 'Weren't the SAO survivor avatars modeled on their real bodies?' He'd met Kirigaya Yuuki Asuna briefly in the past and was certain she couldn't have been out of her teens. There was a story there, but it remained to be seen if it was something he needed to know.

Passing the sun dial in the hospital's front plaza, Saitou lengthened his stride, he was running late, and he didn't like to keep a patient waiting without good cause. Especially children, anxious enough as it was when they heard the word 'Doctor' and started to think of scary men in masks with big needles.

Or at least, that had been the impression he'd had when he'd been a child.

"Shouichi-sensei!" He caught sight of short slip of an Undine, hands stuffed into the pockets of her white coat jogging to catch up with him.

"Good afternoon Kiriyu-san, you'll be sitting in on this as well?" He waved his clipboard.

"Hmm?" The Undine woman frowned. "It's news to me."

Saitou read the name again, Kiriyu had been requested as well. "You're attached to the TRIST board aren't you? That's probably why." That would explain it. Lord Mortimer had gotten his organizational mitts into the research the division and since then, everything over there had been going in the direction of centralization. "You can double check at the front desk." Saitou advised. "It should be in room two fourteen."

"Right. And thanks for the heads up." Kiriyu fell in beside him, a small, bemused expression on her lips.

"There's a story you're keeping in, I suppose?" Saitou noted. Gossip was a thing across worlds, that it was.

"Is it that obvious." The tanned and platinum haired little Undine woman wondered.

Saito nodded seriously. "If it's confidential you should try to hide it better."

"I don't really know." Kiriyu pursed her lips. "I don't suppose it would break confidentiality to ask if we have plans in place for a maternity ward?"

Saitou's brows rose. "Another one?"

"The first I've dealt with directly." Kiriyu admitted. "The symptoms were so mild I didn't think much of it until I found out she'd missed her period."

Something that they would also have to worry about in the not so distant future. So far the confirmed reports were sporadic and split among all of the settlements, but that was still over a hundred and fifty confirmed pregnancies. And likely thousands more that hadn't been reported yet. If there was one things humans could be relied on to do, it was fooling around.

"How did she take it." Saitou asked. Kiriyu was probably right, they needed to put some sort of system in place for educating and preparing the expectant mothers, and hopefully, fathers.

"Better than most." Kiriyu said dryly. "I think she's old enough to handle it. I talked her through the shock and she was okay enough after that. She just . . . punched a hole in a solid brick wall on her way out." Waving a hand. "I'll tell you the rest later, two fourteen? Got it!"

At least this appointment promised not to be so fraught with surprises, Saitou told himself, stopping by his office long enough to grab his coat. Even though people should have known better by now, in this teenage body, it helped to be taken seriously.

"Good afternoon Kirigaya-san." Saitou said as he pushed open the door to the examination room with his foot, distracted as he patted down his pockets for a piece of pencil.

He made it all the way into the room before actually looking to Kirigaya Yuuki Asuna. Teenage, perhaps sixteen or seventeen, he confirmed mentally. If her avatar at all resembled her real self, then her daughter must have been adopted in this world. Likely a relative or close family friend. He'd have to be sure to ask for clarification.

"And good afternoon to you too Saitou-sensei." Asuna bowed politely. The young mother was dressed for the summer heat, short sleeve blouse and short skirt. A pair of wide straw hats filled the chair beside her. One no doubt belonging to her daughter. "It's been a while. We didn't run into you when you were in Tristania. Thank you again for taking us on such short notice."

"It's no trouble at all." Saitou smiled warmly. "In fact, I'm honored to know you think so highly of me Kirigaya-san. Now then." Saitou turned to the examination table. "You must be Yui . . ."

Saitou would not say his heart stopped, but he did forget to breath for a moment, forgot where he was, and when he was as he met the patient and curious expression of a beautiful little girl.

Even with pointed ears and Faeries wings, he had to remind himself that he was not looking at a ghost.

It was a face that brought back fond memories, and with them a melancholy. A face that had been beside him for over half of his life and now awakened a regret he'd almost forgotten. Always so busy with his work, but always waiting when he got home, from his days in university to his days as a general practitioner. Until one day . . . she wasn't anymore.

A grave regret that reminded him of his years and a loneliness he'd never quite learned how to fill.

It was a credit to Shouichi Saitou that he was able to turn the pause into a mere moment of distraction. " . . . Yui-chan. It's nice to meet you."

"It's nice to meet you too." Kirigaya Yui smiled brightly. A face so sweet it wasn't hard at all to imagine that she was her parents' joy. "Please take good care of me, Shoichi-sensei!"


	2. Chapter 2

Halkegenia Online – Arrun Parallel Stories - Melancholy Heart - Part 2

Her name was Takeda Mutsumi, and to a fourteen year old Shouichi Saitou, she had been the most beautiful girl in the world. Dark eyes and long, jet black hair. Pale, full moon face, and thin, peach colored lips. When she smiled, everyone noticed.

She was _always_ smiling. A radiance that had been nearly blinding.

He wouldn't say that it had been love at first sight. He'd never put much stock in those sort of fairy tale ideas. More like awe, and shy fascination that someone like her would give someone like him the time of day.

But by the time they'd both graduated from high school, that first infatuation had blossomed into something far stronger, and the discovery that the feelings had been requited. Sixty two years later, Saitou still hadn't figured out how someone as wonderful as Mutsumi had ever managed to fall in love with someone as ordinary as him. But she had. And for that, he had been blessed.

If only . . . If only he hadn't squandered it.

They'd married young, perhaps before they had really been ready, and life had not always been easy for them because of it. Moving to the city so that he could attend university, both of them working jobs to keep food on the table and a roof over their heads. The long commutes had eaten into their time for one another, until they were lucky to be home at the same time except late at night.

Things had only grown more hectic once he'd passed his medical exams and become a practicing physician. By then, Mutsumi had been pregnant with their first child, their eldest son Takeo, and Saitou had been hard at work providing for them while Mutsumi cared for their child and home.

She'd been so proud of him when he'd been promoted to department head, and then made it to the board at such a young age. Mutsumi had her hands full with their daughter Kio as well as their youngest son Abe and the time they had to themselves had shrunken to almost nothing.

He knew Mutsumi had never been unhappy with her life. Their children were her joy, and what little time they had for one another had been made all the more precious by its scarcity. Even so, he'd always felt like there had been more he could have done to ease the burden on her.

Mutsumi had simply teased him and told him time and time again that there was no shame in working hard to take care of his family. They were a team, she'd told him, they were meant to cover for each other. And there would be time later, for all of the things they'd always talked about when they were younger, she'd always say.

There would be time once he graduated. She'd promised as they lay in bed one hot summer night.

Then later, it would be after he was established as a doctor, told to him as she served dinner in their new apartment.

After he made department head, she'd urged while patting her swollen belly, both of them thankful to know that she and their unborn child were in good hands under the care of one of Saitou's best friends and colleagues.

After he got settled in on the board. After he showed the new members of the staff the ropes.

As her dark hair had begun to gray and her face had grown marked with crow's feet and laugh lines. Mutsumi had been just as beautiful to him then as she had been when they were young, but Saitou had started to worry that, despite his wife's assurances, there _wouldn't_ be enough time.

And then, there wasn't.

In the end, it had been her heart that had given out.

The murmur had been spotted after the birth of their youngest son, and Saitou had done everything right. He'd had Mutsumi put under observation, the cardiologists had studied the results, made their conclusions, and prescribed the appropriate medication. Saitou had urged his wife to rest a little, Takeo and Kio were in their teens and Abe was in school at last. She deserved to take it easy now. She'd just smiled and told him not to worry so much on her account.

She never listened, he thought.

The day Mutsumi had passed away, Saitou had made it home early to an empty house, intent on surprising her. The absence of his wife and children had alerted him at once that something was wrong, and it had not been long before he'd received a call from his own hospital.

When he'd heard, he'd rushed back as fast as he could. But by then he was caught in the commuter rush that he'd previously evaded. By the time he'd made it to the emergency room, she'd been gone.

The attending physician had just finished by the time he arrived, tears in his eyes. He was young, and talented, and not yet accustomed to losing a patient despite his best efforts. Saitou had listened to the younger man's explanation, delivered in a shaken voice. The complications that had arisen that had made it impossible to save his wife.

He'd walked out the front door that morning, kissing Mutsumi on the cheek fondly, not for a moment thinking that she wouldn't still be there when he got back. And if he hadn't left early, maybe, at least, he could have had a chance to say goodbye. Maybe he could have done something if he'd been there, he knew that wasn't true, but his heart insisted that his mind was wrong.

Maybe if he'd just made a little more time . . .

Then, Saitou had put a hand on the surgeon's shoulder and told him that he'd done everything he could, and thanked him for his work.

He hadn't wanted to see the body, not yet, he'd told himself that he was going to find his children first, that he wasn't running away. He'd almost managed to make that lie into the truth before he was confronted by his sons and daughter, and had to explain to them that their mother wouldn't be coming home.

At the end of that year, on their anniversary, Saitouu had quietly stepped down from the hospital board, burying his grief in the work of healing, and when that grew too numbing, punishing himself as he steadfastly comforted the dying and their next of kin. He'd worked until he forgot himself, where he'd come from, and where he was going. Worked until he was so tired that the dreams wouldn't come. He couldn't stand to see her while he slept only to wake up and know that she was really gone.

If his coworkers hadn't been so worried for their former department chief, he might have continued on that path until he worked himself into the grave. Instead, he'd been taken aside one day by his superior, a man who had once been his subordinate, and been kindly urged to rethink what he was doing.

Saitou had told him honestly that he didn't know what else to do with himself.

He had the seniority, they pleaded with him, and a passion for medicine. Why not teach?

Teach?

Yes, teach. Get away from the life he was living. Get away from the habits that continued to reopen old wounds. If he went to teaching, he could stop reminding himself about what had happened, distance himself from the pain. And most of all, it would give him a little more time to spend with his children.

Children, he realized, that he hardly knew, despite loving them with all his heart. It had been a year before he'd really been able to face them, and be there for them as he should have been from the moment their mother had passed. Guilt over his failure had been the last straw, he'd turned his attention back to his family.

And so, he'd taken his colleagues' advice. They'd stayed in their family home, but his daily commute had started taking him to the University, this time as a professor at a teaching hospital. The work was much the same, but the change of faces, and of tempo, had at last started to break down old habits. And in the time that he'd gained, he was at last able to meet his children, seemingly for the first time, and discover just how much he'd been missing out on all of these years.

Making up for the lost time had certainly dulled the pain, buried it at last beneath all of the joy that still existed, and never ceased to come into his life. Such as seeing Takeo's graduation from medical school, and holding his granddaughter for the first time, a little wriggling baby girl, squawking indignantly at being handed to an old geezer like him.

He'd convinced himself that he was happy. He was. And that it didn't still hurt to think about Mutsumi. Time healed all wounds, as they said.

If that were the case, then now, it felt like years had been obliterated before his eyes. He was thankful that Kiriyu was there to help, he didn't know if he could have endured staying in the examination room otherwise.

As it was, once the exam was finished, he'd given Kiriyu his notes and left her to finish filling out the patient forms alone, he'd needed a breath of fresh air.

Her name was Kirigaya Yui. She was, he estimated, nine or ten years old, if biology meant one iota to their Faerie bodies. And just about the most beautiful little girl he'd ever seen. The resemblance to a young Mutsumi was uncanny.

Personality too, bright and cheerful, and decidedly unafraid of being made to sit up on the examination bench to be poked and prodded by perfect strangers. She'd observed curiously, asking an endless stream of questions of the Sylph and Undine healers while they went about their work. Such an observant child, so eager to learn.

If he didn't know better, he could have easily mistaken her for his deceased wife when she'd been only a girl. Even knowing better, if this had still been a full dive game, he thought, if he had still been dying slowly in bed, he might have gathered up the courage to confess his love to a girl like Kirigaya Yui. If only so the world knew it properly before he passed.

But that would have been grossly inappropriate in this new world where he could not simply bow out after such a confession. Professionalism had thankfully won out.

"A good thing too. I would have embarrassed myself saying some fool thing like that." Saitou muttered under his breath as he leaned against a windowsill, looking down from the second floor onto the open plaza. He wondered if fate was toying with him. He'd cheated death after a fashion, so he couldn't expect to get off Scott-free.

"She would have loved it here." Saitou realized as he looked out over the tile rooftops and crowns of countless trees. Loved the sights, the smells, the adventure, flying . . .

He heard the door behind him opening. "Yurudo for your thoughts." Kiriyu asked as she tapped him lightly on his shoulder. "If you don't mind me asking, Shouichi-sensei. I'm guessing there's a reason for that melancholic expression, it isn't like you."

"What?" Saitou blinked, he'd merely been reminiscing was all. "Oh . . . no . . . Nothing like that. I was just reminded of . . . of something."

Kiriyu was observant, and polite enough to understand that it wasn't something he wanted to talk about just now. Handing him the file containing Yui's patient record for final review. "That's everything we discussed with Asuna-san and Yui-chan. Sorry that there's a few parts I couldn't fill out."

"Pre Existing Conditions." Saitou noted the first block of blank lines in the form. Not that anyone really believed that the medical history of their human bodies was at all relevant now. But for the sake of completeness the hospitals had been collecting as much information as they could. Who knew what might end up being valuable for future study.

The parental health section was also empty. As were almost all of the rest of the pre-existing information sections. Not at all surprising given Yui-chan's unique circumstances.

Listening as Kirigaya Asuna and then Kirigaya Yui herself had explained her nature in the calm, confident voice of complete honesty. Saitou wasn't really sure what to make of it.

After retiring, he'd kept abreast of current events, and especially developments in the medical fields. Surgical robots that were improving the quality and safety of medical operations, and highly sophisticated Expert Systems that could diagnose patients more reliably than a human physician. So he hadn't been completely at a loss when terms like Self Learning Algorithm and Machine Iteration had been brought up.

At first it was difficult for him to believe that such a vibrant personality was the product of a computer program, but he'd found himself excepting it as the truth. The Faerie Lords believed it. And the weight of evidence in this world was on the side of Yui and her mother. If the Pixies could gain sapience and sentience, then the same went for any other AI.

Given that it made Yui astonishingly unique, even among the Fae, Saitou could understand why her mother and father had wanted to keep their daughter's nature known only among those they could trust. Especially with the ugly rumors of trafficking that had been cropping up recently. ALfheim goods and denizens stolen or poached for the lucrative black markets.

This had been a reason he'd been requested by name . Working closely on the 'autopsy' of the undead, and then examining Louise Valliere, his Security Clearance made him the natural choice as Yui's primary physician. Kiriyu as well, her status as a member of the TRIST Biological Research Sub-Committee likewise qualified her.

"So, I'm guessing this one counts as _extra_ confidential." Kiriyu said dryly. "Right, Shouichi-sensei?"

"Right." Saitou agreed as he closed the report.

As best as they could tell, Kirigaya Yui was a perfectly healthy little girl, or at least, her examination had been well within the range of what had been observed in other healthy Faeries, despite her mother's urging for them to take note of anything at all out of the ordinary.

Saitou's feelings on the matter were mixed. He was relieved of course, as her doctor, that she was healthy. But he was worried that the relief he felt wasn't just that of a Doctor to his patient. Seeing Mutsumi in her made it too easy to slip.

'But she isn't Mutsumi.' He had to remind himself of that. He was surprised by how much he wished she had been.

"I just don't get why we weren't fully briefed beforehand." Kiriyu grumbled. "It's not like either of us was going to go and blab. Did someone screw up?"

That was the question of the hour, Saitou supposed, but giving it a little thought, he knew the answer. The name of the person who had recommended him and Kiriyu had been his own Lord. "We probably have Sakuya-sama to thank for that."

"What?" Kiriyu leaned over the windowsill beside him. "Hey, Saitou, if you know something, spill it to us who are still the uninitiated!"

"Sorry, sorry, you're right. I was just thinking." Saitou smiled as he caught sight of black and chestnut heads of hair making their way across the plaza below, each wearing a wide straw hat. "Sakuya-sama is a smart one. I think she's even smarter than she knows. I bet she wanted to see how we'd react to the news."

"About Yui-chan?"

Saitou nodded. "Asuna-san was very forward with the information when it came up. I'm sure we could have learned beforehand if we'd thought to ask." And Saitou was doubly sure that any medically relevant information about Kirigaya Yui would now be made fully available to him at request. As her medical caregiver, he could not oversee any treatment in the future unless he knew everything.

"Then you're saying . . . that Sakuya-sama deliberately didn't tell us, to gauge how we'd react to meeting Yui-chan for the first time." The Undine rubbed at the back of her head. "This is weirder than the pregnancy thing."

"Not at all." Saitou pushed off of the windowsill, straightening his white lab coat. "I think Sakuya-sama did not want us to make up our minds about Yui-chan until we had the chance to meet her for ourselves."

"Are you implying that we can't keep our objectivity?" Kiriyu grimaced. "That seems a little insulting to me."

"I'm implying that we need to be self-conscious." Saitou corrected. "Kiriyu-san, if you had many injured and sick patients, and only limited supplies and staff, what would you do?"

"Socratic method?" The platinum haired Undine stuffed her hands in her pockets. "Okay, I'll bite. Standard triage procedure, construct a list prioritizing the patients who are critically injured but likely to survive if they receive treatment and make everyone else secondary. Work my way down the list based on immediate need and reassess as the situation demands." Kiriyu frowned. "It's not pleasant, you probably know that better than me Shouichi-sensei, but that's part of our work."

"And what about if two of your patients were equally in need. Which would you pick?" Saitou's eyes followed Yui and Asuna to the edge of the plaza, where they became lost in the foot traffic.

"There's always variations." Kiriyu complained. "Two patients are never _exactly_ the same. But if it happened, I'd just have to act on my judgment."

"What if one of those patients was a Faerie and one was a human?"

"You have to ask?" Kiriyu sounded offended. "I'd treat them both exactly the same. In my eyes we are all human, regardless of what species we are."

Saitou nodded, Kiriyu was a compassionate woman, he had no doubt in his mind that she would do her very best if she was one day confronted by such a difficult decision. Which was why, to prepare her, he had to confront her with difficult questions. To do less would not be teaching her.

"And what if, between these two patients, one of them was 'human' and the other was, for instance, a Coinen Sidhe . . ."

"I . . ." Kiriyu leaned back, her eyes sparking with thought. "You're joking right? One of those savage hunters?"

"So they're savages?" Saitouu wondered out loud. He'd never had the opportunity to journey into the regions of Cait Syth territory where the Sidhe mobs were most numerous, so he couldn't really say.

"You know I don't mean it that way." Kiriyu pressed her lips together angrily. "I read the news. Someone's been harassing the mob patrols that get too deep into the forests, people have been hurt. And you're not going to tell me those scalps that got found by the army were put up like that by the local orcs. Pixies might be peaceful enough, but there were always passive mobs, the Sidhe were created as enemies and are just as aggressive now as they were in ALfheim."

"If you'd read the news today, you'd also know that one of the hunter guilds finally managed to make peaceful contact." Saitou said softly.

"What?" Kiriyu blinked suspiciously. "You're kidding right?"

"It was thanks to one our paramedics in point of fact." Saitou couldn't help but feel a little pride. Such a vulgar, angry young woman when he'd first met her. She'd mellowed some as she'd made a place for herself. And now, thanks to Boo-san, one of Lady Sakuya's ambitions might be a little closer to reality. "They found a Coinen huntswoman who had been badly hurt. As I understand, the lesser Sidhe don't possess a great mastery of magic. They were in awe that a Faerie healer would treat one of their own and were willing to speak with them because of it. This means that we might have a chance to communicate with them and make peace."

And gain the help of as many as two to three thousand additional 'Faeries'. Faeries who had been created with a knowledge and culture that suited them better to this harsh world. If nothing else, they might be able to get them to stop harassing the locals. If healers could help in that process, then it was their duty to do so. And that would mean treating the lesser Sidhe with humanity and kindness.

"They obviously don't just want to fight us. They understand debts and decency." Saitou reasoned. "And even if they did not, being a doctor means that you help everyone Kiriyu. You heal even your worst enemy. When you have the power to save a life, it is your obligation to use it."

The Undine looked ashamed. "Yes, Shouichi-sensei."

"If the Coinen Sidhe become recognized as Faeries of ALfheim, then we will need to lead by example and treat them as we would anyone else. Their world and memories tell them that they have no reason to trust us, so we need to convince them otherwise. Accepting beings like Yui and the Pixies is the first step to making a habit of it."

"Habit huh?" Kiriyu's lips twitched.

"Meaning?" Saitou, stumbled back as the Undine took a step forward, grinning. "Does that mean we get to talk about your habits too?"

"You're not going to tell me I'm a workaholic now, are you?" Saitou asked tiredly. "I've already heard it from Et-chan." And just now, had been reminded of why she was right.

"Well, your little sister has you pegged." The Undine nodded seriously.

"She's not . . ." Saitou began, and then stopped. Naturally, people knew he was much older than he looked. But when they thought of a physician playing games, their image was a young professional, certainly not a middle aged, or even elderly man. Helped along by the way Nanami treated him in public, and it was likely as true in this world as anything else.

Kiriyu shook her head. "But that wasn't what I was talking about. Your bedside manner wasn't so good in there. What gives?"

"I . . . don't know what you're talking about." Saitou looked away.

"You were pretty off putting." Kiriyu pushed. "Even if Yui-chan was an AI like Asuna-san said, she's a real little girl now. She was trying to get you to like her, but you didn't bite."

"Like her?"

"All that chattering." Kiriyu frowned. "Didn't you notice? She got really quiet after a while. She probably thinks you hate her now"

"Oh."

No, of course not! He wanted to say. He'd thought he'd been hiding it better. But it seemed he wasn't the master of his own heart that he thought he was. "I was just distracted is all."

"Still, not like you." The younger physician said suspiciously, giving him an appraising eye. Saitou stood his ground, he really was getting too old for this. At last, Kiriyu broke into a smile. "Kay."

"Kay?"

"Everyone has an off day. And you're too reliable a person for me to worry much, Shouichi-sensei."

"I see." Saitou felt his relief returning. "Well then, I hope this isn't too much to ask, but could you file this for me?" He handed the patient record back to the Undine. "I think . . . I think I'm going to leave early today."

"Sure. Going to go surprise Et-chan?"

"I think so." Saitou replied. Mostly, he just needed to get away from the hospital. But his thoughts went with him, even as he shrugged off his lab coat and grabbed his jacket from his office.

He was greeted along the way, by the vendors on the main street, and a few of the hunters taking advantage of the day of void to get their equipment checked out. He'd helped more than a few of them, men and women who had been hurt in battle, or carried back to town suffering from status ailments, poisons, or burns delivered by the more dangerous mobs.

He didn't pay most of them much mind. But they understood and didn't take offense, there was hardly a day when he didn't travel to work with his nose in a notebook, or stumble home bleary eyed to sleep. Being lost in his own thoughts was perfectly normal.

A man started to reminisce more as he aged, and Shouichi Saitou was no exception, spending as much time in the past as the present. He supposed then that by the end of this second life his head would be jam packed with his own history.

The weather wasn't helping. A hot day like this, with the Cicada's chirping as he made his way downhill towards the edge of town. It had been a day like this when they'd first met, and a day like this when Mutsumi had passed away. And thinking of it that way, of home, and Nanami, and coming home early, his stomach had begun to twist and turn.

An ill premonition.

Saitou's pace had quickened, first to a jog, and then into a sprint, running downhill full tilt until he managed to get off the main road and into the more sparsely populated residential areas where it was safe to go airborne.

The home he shared with his granddaughter was in Arrun's western district, where the markets and manors started to thin out and were replaced by park ways and herb gardens built within the the safety of the outer curtain wall. It was a small, wooden residence, reminiscent of a traditional home. Hardly a luxurious place, but it suited them just fine, and reminded him of the little house he and Mutsumi had rented when they'd first been married.

He touched down in the garden ,hardly noticing he was out of breath as he vaulted onto the patio and threw the door open on its slider. "Et-chan? Et-chan?! Nanami!"

"You're home early, Saitou-kun. Is something wrong?" The voice at his back caused Saitou to spin around, catching sight of his granddaughter making her way across the garden with a basket full of damp clothing. "Hey Jii-chan, why are you so out of breath?"

"N-Nanami . . ." Saitou whispered, releasing his breath with a sigh. Of course, just the baseless fears of an old man.

"N-no . . . No, I'm sorry," his heartbeat began to slow again, "I just didn't know where you were is all."

"Getting the laundry." She answered. "Those Leprechauns down the way are pretty smart." She started to explain as she set the basket down. "They set up these belt driven tumblers that they can drain and fill with water. It's not quite as good as a proper washing machine, and they can't dry them just yet." She smiled. "But it really saves a lot of work. Oh, could you help me with these?"

Saitou had found himself clipping clothes to the line that Nanami had strung between the side of the house and the tree in the garden. With the sun like this, they'd be baked dry in no time.

"Still, I'm surprise to see you home so early." Nanami mused. "Things must have been really slow at the hospital today."

"I wouldn't say slow . . ." Saitou let his mind wonder. "I suppose I just received a reminder is all.

"A reminder?" Nanami shook her head. "No, never mind. But you better not think this gets you out of dinner tonight!" His granddaughter pouted cutely.

Saitou chuckled. "Right, right, of course not. Like I said, wherever you want."

"Wherever?"

"Wherever." Saitou promised again. "Wherever! Honest."

* * *

"You _did_ say wherever." Nanami chided as Saitou did his best not to feel like he was being crushed against the corner wall of the bustling establishment. He had indeed said wherever, but he'd never expected _wherever_ to lead them to this little Hole in the Wall restaurant.

"How did you even learn about this place?" Saitouu pondered just what his granddaughter was doing spending time at a place with a full bar, even if the atmosphere inside was more open and cheerful than he might have expected. Wood tables, floor, and walls polished to a gloss that shone in the reflected ore light. Less like a dive, and more like a bistro he'd once frequented. That at least brought back fond memories.

Nanami scowled as she sat opposite him at the small table. "Recon told me about it. It's apparently really popular with people in the Watch and defense forces."

"So this is Recon's doing?" Saitou thought aloud. "I take it back, maybe that boy isn't such a good influence on you."

Nanami stuck out her tongue. "Lighten up a little Saitou-kun. Besides, where else in Arrun could you order dragon cutlets?"

Which, to Saitou's considerable surprise, tasted absolutely nothing like chicken, he thought as he cut through his own serving with a knife and fork. The texture was in fact closer to a very tender beef, garnished with a faintly tangy sweet sauce that was akin to barbecue sauce, though Saitou wasn't at all sure where they would have found the sugar. Probably some sort of fruit base.

"Where do they even manage to get dragons for eating?" Saitou wondered.

It couldn't possibly be easy. In fact, he knew it wasn't, the cutlets had just about been the most expensive thing on the menu. But splurging like this didn't feel undeserved. Anything to make Nanami feel special. He looked over to his granddaughter who tonight had traded her kimono for a lightweight dress and sweater in light azure that complimented her hair, accessorized by a small, blue purse she'd picked up just recently. "You look lovely tonight Et-chan." He smiled.

"And you cleaned up really well too, Saitou-kun." She smirked triumphantly as she nodded to his own clothes. He'd lost that battle a while ago. For the longest time he hadn't bothered much with his clothing. That too was a prerogative of the elderly. Practicality and comfort had been his only real considerations. Even the Transition had merely caused him to add more of the same so that he could do laundry now that clothes got dirty.

Nanami dragging him to a tailor's shop had been a surprise. Being fitted with an informal dress jacket, pants, and blouse, all themed in deep greens had ended up making him feel like some sort of clothes horse. But his granddaughter wouldn't hear a word of it. In her own words he needed something to 'Brighten up his wardrobe'.

Seeing himself in the mirror before setting out, he supposed she was right after all. He'd have looked under dressed going out without at least putting something nice on.

And the mood of this place was growing on him, he decided as the hostess, a tall Gnome woman with long black hair, came by to refill his teacup. Taking the opportunity to watch the rest of the of the guests.

"So, let's hear it again for Irene-sensei!"

He didn't mean to eavesdrop, but given the rather Intimate seating, it was impossible for him to ignore the trio seated the table over.

"For surviving another year." A handsome young Salamander raised his shot glass.

"And thriving in this place." A Puca woman with golden hair curled into ringlets agreed. She was smiling, eyes closed, and with a definite flush to her cheeks that suggested inebriation more than embarrassment.

"Happy birthday Irene-chan!" The two said, clinking together their glasses before the third member of their party whose blush most definitely was from embarrassment.

An Undine, younger in appearance than both of her companions, her silver blue hair drawn back, and dressed in a beautifully patterned blue and white kimono. She clutched a cup of tea in both hands, and despite the festivity of her companions, looked in no mood to join in.

"Really now you two . . . We didn't need to go out like this on my account." The Undine addressed as Irene-sensei stuttered. "I shouldn't be away from the children for this long. And Takai-sensei, you shouldn't be having so much to drink. You have defense drills tomorrow. You'll set a bad example for your students."

"Lighten up a little Irene-chan. This is a celebration. There's nothing wrong with taking a little time off." The Salamander told her good naturedly. "Besides, it's the duty of men to endure hangovers after a night out. That's an important lesson too!"

The Undine sniffed indignantly.

"Don't tease her like that Takai-kun. And don't worry Irene-chan, the children have their minders for the night. Everyone was settled in before we left."

"And if you knew children at all, Ophelia-san, you'd know that they never _stay_ settled for long. I've had a wonderful time. And I appreciate what you two are trying to do, but for the sake of my peace of mind, I really need to get back." Irene said as she got up from her seat and started squeezing out from between the table and wall. "Just let me go get the bill and . . ."

"You're not paying the bill on your own birthday!" Ophelia protested. "Come on, it's what makes this a little bit special."

"You didn't even have one drink with us!" Takai added, refilling his own glass. "You're supposed to take a sip for every year. If you can make it to your current age, it means you've gained a year of drinking experience. Which reminds me to ask, just how old _are _you now Irene-sensei."

It was hard to miss her flush, it stood out so well against her pale skin. "That's none of your business Takai-sensei! You really are drunk aren't you?!"

"Just a little." He smiled. How much alcohol had that taken, Saitou wondered.

"I'll go get the bill." Irene declared firmly. "Honestly you to need as much watching as the chil –"

It was a chain reaction of sorts, one that Saitou would only have seen the end of if his attention hadn't already been on the table. A Salamander picking his way between tables had bumped into the edge, driving the table closer to the wall. In the process he'd indirectly nudged the Undine who was in the midst of working her way out from her seat. Trying to regain her balance, feet had been caught between chair legs. And the rest was simply physics.

"W-waagh!" The Undine girl pulled her arms in close around herself, a defensive reflex that prevented her from grabbing for a handhold.

Saitou's reflexes had still been respectable for a man of his years even before the transition had full rejuvenated him in the flesh. It took him only a heartbeat to follow the trajectory of the girl's fall and note that she was going to end up slamming face first into the edge of their table.

Nanami was just starting to realize something was wrong when Saitou shot out of his chair, planting one hand on the table edge for balance and throwing out the other to arrest the girl's fall. When she hit, caught around the waist, Saitou was surprised by the weight, but kept his own balance as dishes were knocked from the table and the girl's purse was flung from her hands.

"Are you okay, Miss?" Saitou asked the Undine pressed against his side. 'Shivering?' He thought. Her eyes only a few centimeters from the table edge.

Shaking her head, the girl let go of the front his shirt, steadying herself. Through the rest of the dining hall, hardly anyone had looked up save the manager and his wife. Spills and broken plates were a fact of life here.

"I'm . . . I'm fine." She breathed. "Oh . . . Thank you." She turned to Saitou, giving a small bow as she gathered her hands into the sleeves of her Kimono. "That was clumsy of me."

"It was that jerk who bumped the table." The Salamander, Takai, said, eyes narrowing suspiciously as he made to get up from his seat. Only stopped by his Puca companion.

"No heroism tonight Takai-kun." She sounded suddenly like the picture of sobriety. "Irene-san, please, this is your party, I'll get the bill." Ophelia got up, displaying surprising coordination for someone who'd been drinking. She had no trouble picking her way through the crowded dining hall to reach the front desk.

"Jii . . . Saitou-kun, that was pretty quick." Nanami sounded almost impressed with her old Grandpa.

"I was kind of paying attention beforehand." Saitou admitted. "I should be the one who's sorry." Whether he'd caught her or not, he _had_ been eavesdropping.

"I'm sorry about that, they can be a little . . . boisterous." The Undine girl said. "I don't think we've been introduced yet, I'm Irene, the head instructor at Arrun Home."

"Saitou." Saitou provided politely. "I'm a physician at the Central Hospital. It's a pleasure to meet you Irene-san."

"Oh, well . . ." Irene seemed to realize for the first time how close together they were, very carefully taking a step back. "Thank you again Saitou-san. Bowing once more, she reached down to retrieve her handbag from the floor.

"Okay Takai-kun, upsy daisy." Ophelia grunted as she prodded the Salamander to stand up. "Irene-chan, let's get going, okay?"

"Right, just a moment!" She called. "I hope we haven't caused you any trouble this evening."

No, it hadn't been any trouble at all, accidents happened, and at it turned out, the owners were very easy going about the damage, settling to simply add the fair cost of the dishes to the bill.

Thankfully, the rest of the evening had been less eventful, though Nanami had still kept them long enough to get desert. By the time they'd made it home, traveling on foot, Saitou had been feeling distinctly ready for bed, and Nanami was practically in a walking coma from all of the good food.

Too late for a proper bath. All of the public houses shut down relatively early. Saitou had resorted to a fire spell from the utility class to boil a pot of water to wash up with before bed. By the time he'd been finished, Nanami had already changed into her sleep clothes and was seated looking out the window.

When his granddaughter saw him, she giggled.

"Is something funny?" Saitou asked as he finished drying his hair with a hand towel hung around his neck.

"Not really . . . well . . . maybe a little. I was talking to Recon on my way home. He's doing well by the way, he's working for the papers now. Probably a good place for him." Nanami shook her head in disbelief. "You know, he thinks you're my older brother, right?"

Saitou sighed, of course he did, coming to sit beside Nanami. His granddaughter leaned against him like she had when she was still little. "That's going to be what people will think as long as you don't go telling them." Siblings playing games like ALO together must have been a lot less rare than grandchildren and grandparents doing the same. "I have the same problem with my staff. Though I don't think it's really much of a problem." A loving elder brother and a grandfather were much the same in many ways. What people labeled them didn't really matter much in the end.

"Yeah." Nanami agreed as she closed her eyes, smiling. "Though, I don't know, I think you'd make a pretty cute Nii-chan."

Saitou couldn't help but scowl at his granddaughter's teasing. Except he knew it wasn't just a joke. Being able to do these things with her, fly, and travel at her side, and be relied upon. It was a change in their relationship that Saitou had been giving some thought to.

Before he could open his mouth to answer, Nanami perked up. "Oh, that's what I forgot. I meant to give it to you at dinner." She got up quickly, brushing aside his arm to hurry over to closet.

"Something for a me?" Saitou asked.

"A present." Nanami confirmed. "You're paying for all of our food and clothing, but you never do anything nice for yourself, Jii-chan. Sometime it makes me feel like I'm taking advantage of you."

"That's because you should be spending your time learning." Saitou argued. Even without schools, young people ought to spend their time studying important things so that they'd be ready for the world. He was rather proud of Nanami for taking that advice, and especially for not over specializing like some of the young people. "And enjoying life."

"Uhuh." Nanami sounded unconvinced as she pulled her purse from the closet. "Well, I've been taking odd jobs too, and saving up. It ends up being a lot when you don't have to pay for your own food, plus all the reagents I sold for the mob patrols. Then, just yesterday I saw this and I thought about how much you have to keep a schedule so . . . oh."

"What is it?" Saitou asked.

Nanami's frown turned to worry and then panic. "It's not here!" Hid granddaughter pulled her purse fully open. "Where could it have gotten too?" She fished around. "I know I put it in here and . . . and . . ." She stopped again, extracting a smaller leather coin purse. "This isn't mine." Nanami said seriously, falling back onto her rump as jingled the small pouches contents.

"Nanami?"

His granddaughter flushed. "Erm . . . This isn't my purse. I think . . ."

"Back at the cafe." Saitou finished.

"Yeah."

They were both silent for a moment as the magnitude sank in. "It must have gotten switched with that Undine girl's when you caught her."

"You were both wearing blue." Saitou agreed, it made sense that they'd have both had complimentary purses. Saitou looked to his granddaughter, her dejected expression made his heart ache. She'd wanted to something special for him. "Rest easy Na-chan, it's nobody's fault." He told her reassuringly. "I'll go fix it in the morning."

"That's right." Nanami realized. "She introduced herself, didn't she."

Exactly, Saitou agreed, if she worked at the children's home, than finding her shouldn't be too difficult. And if that failed, the Watch ran a lost and found.

Relief turned to embarrassment as Nanami flushed. "Silly of me to have lost it though. It was expensive too . . ."

"It's alright." He put an arm around her. "It's not a big mistake and we can fix it." He grinned. "I don't suppose you'd mind telling me what it is?"

Nanami crossed her arms and closed her eyes, features taking on a defiant countenance. "A-sur-pri-ise." She said, only cracking an eye when he started to chuckle.

"Well then, I best find it tomorrow!" He told her, yawning. "But for now, I think I'm ready for bed."

Sleeping was another of those things that he'd learned to appreciate as a full night's sleep had become a luxury in his old age. When he'd been young the first time, Saitou had been able to fall asleep just about anywhere. But in recent years, he was always waking up at all hours of the night and then unable to get back to sleep again. Like an old automobile with all its mechanical belts and timings slowly falling out of tune, his body's rhythms had gradually grown erratic.

And though rhythm had been restored, the habits that caused him to remain awake were still with him. Laying in the dark, his futon spread out beside his granddaughter's, despite what he'd said, Saitou had lingered for a while as he recalled the day.

"Mutsumi . . ." He muttered under his breath. The night was dark, and even with his eyes opened, they felt closed. It wasn't hard to see her in his mind. And realize he was facing the prospect of another lifetime without her. He hadn't cried since his wife had died, after losing her, it hadn't seeming like anything else was so bad, which was why he was surprised by the burning at the corners of his eyes.

'I thought eighty years would be enough to become more mature than this.' He thought as he covered his eyes with a forearm and tried not to sob. He didn't want to wake Nanami at a time like this.

He worried briefly that he had when he felt her turn over, grumbling in her sleep. "Mmm . . . nngh – jchan . . ." She mumbled inarticulately, one arm blindly reaching out towards him.

'A brother, huh?' He wondered, sitting up quietly and turning his dark adjusted eye to Nanami. Blue hair feathering all about her head. In his opinion, she was as cute in this world as she had been in the one she'd been born in.

Climbing to his feet, when he couldn't sleep, he needed to find something useful to do. Exercising, studying, or simply tidying. Nanami had left the purse out beside her mattress. 'She should have at least put it back.' He thought, someone might trip over it in the morning.

Padding barefoot around her, Saitou crouched down to carefully return the contents to their rightful place. Pouches, a bundle of envelopes tied up with twine, a few small potion vials, and of course thee change purse. Then, one other item, caught in the feeble sliver of moonlight.

'A screen cap?' Saitou thought as he picked it up and turned it over. Not from ALfheim, it was an imported picture from IRL. A woman standing outside the gate of an elementary school. A dark haired girl, proudly holding up a diploma declaring her teaching credentials, smiling.

-June, 2020, Aoi's first day, taken by Sensei- It read on the back in messily penned handwriting. Someone who had made a big impression on that young woman's life. Saitou thought before carefully returning the photograph to the purse, making sure it remained undamaged. It really hadn't been proper for him to look at it like that without permission.

'Don't worry Irene-san.' He thought tiredly as he returned the bag to the closet. 'Your belongings are in good hands.'

* * *

Saitou had gotten an early start the next morning after what felt like a dreamless sleep, the joys of not waking to old aches and pains more stimulating than caffeine had ever been as he stretched and yawned in his loose nightshirt and shorts and prepared to start his day.

The heat the night before had left him covered in sweat, which meant another quick wash with a towel and pot of heated water while the birds chirped outside the kitchen window.

Grabbing clothes from the closet, the blue purse sitting on the floor served as an urgent reminder. 'Right.' Saitou thought as he cast a look over his shoulder. Nanami was still tucked into bed, hugging her pillow close to her chest while drooling over some pleasant dream. He'd take care of this and have Nanami's bag for her by lunch he decided as he made his way out the door and onto the footpath that wound through the semi wooded outskirts of Arrun's outer district.

Saitou wasn't in a rush that morning, so he let himself enjoy the walk, the lightening sky overhead, and calls of neighbors bidding him a good morning. The foot traffic picked up as he entered the more urban districts and then hit the main street where the shops were already beginning to open.

As it turned out, finding Arrun Home did not prove difficult at all. Though the formerly geriatric doctor, now a Sylph youth, had never been to the Children's Home himself, like most important structures, it was located close to the main street.

It turned out to be very much a case of a place that he had often passed but never payed much mind to. And now that he was actually paying attention, he was almost surprised he hadn't noticed it before. The Home's necessity however, was well impressed on his mind.

'If I wasn't here, Nanami might have ended up in a place like this.' Not that it would have been a terrible fate judging by the buildings facade and the well kept gardens.

Certainly she would have been older than most of the children, but she also hadn't been a member of any guild or strongly affiliated with her faction. She would have had no one to turn to.

After the disastrous launch of SAO, ALfheim Online had been one of the few Full Dive games to meet with much commercial success, launching coincidentally with the AMUsphere as one of the stopgap system's flagship games.

Due to the expense of developing a full dive game, and the wealth of immersion technology that had been salvaged from the defunct ARGUS when the company's assets had been liquidated, RETCO subsidiary RETCO Progress had made a decision early in ALO's rushed development cycle to appeal to as wide a player base as possible.

And so, despite the emphasis on skill based combat and heavy focus on PVP, ALfheim Online had made an effort to appeal to a much broader audience. Not only the heavy PvPers, but players seeking PvE dungeon crawling, or simply playing for the social aspect of exploring a fantasy world. Coupled with ALOs fantastical public image and the oft mentioned safety of the updated Full Dive consoles, and it had become the go to game for younger children trying to sneak an action adventure past their cautious parents.

But what had been harmless fun, had now become a tragedy that had torn those children from their families, and trapped them in a violent and frightening world that they did not know and had no hope of understanding on their own.

Nanami had born the revelation of the Transition with astonishing strength for someone so young. This world had been rough on her at times, but she was not entirely a child anymore. And Nanami at least had him for support, a confidant and a shoulder to cry on when it got too tough. He could only begin to imagine how much more difficult it had been for those who were even younger and had no one in this world.

Thankfully for those wayward souls, they were not as alone as they'd at first thought.

Disaster had a tendency to galvanize communities, Saitou mused as he received directions from a helpful young Cait drawing attention to a newly opened bakery. Hardship brought people together in ways that they would never have thought possible. Loosely associated groups of players known as Guilds had fast found themselves becoming disciplined fighting cadres or staunch business partners, and the factions that had been the foundation of ALO's PvP dynamic had been remade into the foundations of self governance, the Lords listening to and addressing the concerns of their constituents.

One such concern had been what to do for the youngest and most helpless of the players turned Fae. The Children, not always in child bodies, who needed to be watched over and taught how to care for themselves in this world.

Arrun Home had started off as a temporary guardianship established by the Fae Lords by unifying and bolstering the efforts of the well intentioned individuals and guilds that had been watching out for vulnerable players. By providing resources to the volunteers, the hope had been to create a place for the children to stay and know that they were safe and looked after.

Every one of the Faerie settlements now possessed such a Home, but as with the Central Hospital, Arrun Home was largest by virtue of the city's population.

As the days had turned to weeks, and the weeks to months, that temporary guardianship had been extended and then made official in the eyes of the burgeoning Faerie Government.

Of course, it was still referred to as the 'Children's Home', a concession to the hope that its wards might one day be returned to their proper place. Else, Saitou thought as he made his way to the gates, smile fading slowly, else they really would be orphans.

'When did I get to be so negative?' Saitou wondered, hefting the misplaced purse. It certainly wasn't from his old life.

Hopefully he wouldn't be thought some sort of thief by bringing this back in person. Especially when it contained an image that was almost certainly of great sentimental value to that young woman. People became rightly attached to such things and didn't take kindly to them going missing.

'And here we are at last.' He came to a stop, looking up past the wrought iron gate that separated the gigantic stone guild hall and its attending outbuildings from the street. Not much of an obstacle for Faerie Wings, but things like walls and gates continued to persist for reasons of practicality, and also a certain aesthetic.

Another concession to aesthetic was situated on the shoulder of the roadway beside the opened gate. Wooden placards strung one after another in six rows, each containing a handwritten name. The names of all of the children and their minders. It was a touching effort to make this place feel more like a home.

'At least the Children appear to be in good hands.' Saitouobserved as he stepped off of the street, climbing the steps into the yard where he was met by the sounds of voices and the noises of children playing.

It was still early, but early or late, children got restless to be outdoors once the sun came up, a constant in any world that was to be expected. Small bodies, and some not so small, filled the yards and gardens of the Guild building, children at play, limbs pumping fast and furious as they chased each other in games of tag and dodge ball, and the occasional flaring of wings as they indulged in not entirely sanctioned aerial antics.

What wasn't so expected was the man at the center of the fracas, struggling to balance as he was besought upon by a pair of children apparently aged around nine or ten intent on pulling him in two directions at once. A rotund little Leprechaun who would have stood out for his stature and build even if not for metallic hair and mustache.

"Come on Ji-chan!" One of the children, a little Cait girl, ears flapping excitedly. "Come look and see what me and Paraila-chan made!"

"No way!" An Undine boy cried. "We want Ji-chan to help us play dragoon first!"

The little girl scowled at her companion. "You need at least two 'dragons' for that, dummy!"

"Now now, just a moment you two! One at a . . . one at a time!" Between the two arguing children, Lord Rute, Lord of the Leprechauns and First Lord of Goubniu struggled to get a word in edge wise, giving a mighty huff to stay balanced as a third child, a little Salamander girl with long, fiery, red hair practically jumped onto his back.

"Yeah, we're going to get Rika-chan to be the other one!" The Undine declared, pointing to a nervous looking Gnome woman beside him who stood head and shoulders above the Faerie Lord.

The young woman shifted and squirmed anxiously as the sound of her name, looking unsure whether she should smile or not at being included in their game.

Having only encountered the Leprechaun Lord during his reports to the Faerie Lords, it was not, Saitou thought, how he would have expected him to spend his free time. Rute's ostentatious red coat with all the finery of its golden buttons and braiding had been cast aside, revealing undershirt and suspenders holding up red trousers, like some less endearing Old Saint Nick in the off season.

"Takaeo, that's no fair!" The young feline accused. "Rika-chan would be a way better dragon than Ji-chan!"

Rute's mustache worked furiously as his face turned beat red. "Why you!"

"Faerie back ride! Faerie back ride!" The little Salamander girl declared excitedly. "Come on Ji-chan, I know you can do it, just like daddy!"

The blustering Lord seemed powerless to do anything but accept, grumbling good naturedly as he conjured his own sprocketed wings and climbed skyward to circle the guild building, his Salamander passenger squealing with delight. Saitoushielded his eyes from the sun as they disappeared behind a turreted tower that dominated one corner of the main building.

"I never would have thought old Rute-san would have it in him." Saitousaid out loud.

"Most people don't realize it, but actually, Rute-sama is a really good person." A young voice replied conversationally right beside him.

A rustling above Saito's head startled him, twitch reflexes he'd started to fast develop now that his body remembered what reflexes were supposed to be, almost caused him to kick off skyward in surprise. As it was, Saitouhad merely summoned his wings without actually using them, the four magic limbs flared and glowing with their full charge before he realized what he was doing. He considered it a partial victory. At least he would be able to salvage most of his dignity, he hoped. The laughter coming from the Imp girl who had materialized by his side left him doubtful.

Then again, he was hardly the only one who presently looked ridiculous. Hanging upside down with her legs hooked around a branch so that her long violet hair nearly brushed the ground, her skirt had come partly up as well, revealing the by now expected pair of shorts that most girls had taken to now that the System Auto Sensoring was no longer in effect.

"Erm . . . E-Excuse me . . ." Saitoubegan uncertainly.

"Sorry, sorry!" The dark haired girl stopped laughing, wiping a tear from one cherry red eye. "I hope I didn't startle you too much."

Without another word, in fact without any forewarning save for a light rocking back and forth, the Imp girl curled upward, a feat that would have been an impressive display of abdominal strength for a normal human, uncurled her legs, and performed an acrobatic little flip as she fell neatly to the ground at his side.

"Uhm . . No." Saitouscratched at the back of his head, night quite sure how to proceed. She certainly looked like one of the children, rising from a crouch, she had a child's exuberance about her. "Uhm, I'm looking for your Sensei, ah, Irene-san?" He asked politely. "Forgive me for asking this but . . ."

"I'm not one of the teachers." The Imp girl answered for him, dusting herself off and shaking out the leaves in her hair. She gave the definite impression that being dirty was nothing new to her. "But I do help out watching the younger kids. I like to pay my own way." She smiled so brightly, Saitouthought that she'd eclipse the sun. If they boxed that smile and sold it in a burger shop, it would sell faster than the french fries. At least, that's what he thought. "You must be new to Arrun home, there are lots of people here who are 'Out of Time'."

"Out of time?" Saitoupuzzled the phrase.

"Un." She nodded seriously. "You know, out of phase with their lifetime?"

"O-Oh . . ." Saitounodded slowly. "Yes, I have some experience with those sort of people." He grinned ruefully. "Out of Time. So that's what you call it?" Then he was very Out of Time indeed.

Saitouhad been well aware of this problem. Kiriyu had been heading up the effort to help the children who had ended up finding their minds in grown forms that were not merely sensory overlays but fully functional bodies with all of the biological feedback that would imply. Some of them were nothing but bundles of nerves over it.

It wasn't overly common, thankfully. At least, not as common as it could have been. ALfheim had possessed parental controls and at least some parents had used them to prevent their children from doing something irresponsible. The avatar generator too had done a reasonable job of guessing a player's age based on gender and calibration data. Saito's own youthful body, he'd discovered, had been a result of being quite short by modern standards and the Character Generator defaulting to its standard age range.

But that still left the children with irresponsible parents and the financial means to customize their avatar, and those who had simply had the bad luck of borrowing a sibling's account, of which there were far too many.

"Well, until someone comes up with a better name." The Imp girl agreed. "I don't know what other people are calling it when they end up in a younger body, but here we just call it 'Out of Time.' It's a big problem, but if you look close you'll see we have a solution. See the Gnome girl over their?"

The young Imp pointed to the woman who Saitouhad seen earlier. Several of the children were chattering with her excitedly while she crouched forward, smiling and nodding and answering back with the same shyness she'd been exhibiting earlier. "That bracelet on her right wrist lets you know that Rika-chan is Out of Time. The teachers and watchers who look too young wear a handkerchief or bandana so that guests can tell them apart."

"Then what about you?" Saitouasked, eyeing the girl's bare wrists.

She grinned. "I look my age so I don't need to show that I'm Out of Time, but I wear this to show that I'm a dorm assistant." The girl touched an orange handkerchief tied around her right arm. "That way the younger kids know they can come to me for help. There's lot of times when they'd rather talk to us than the teachers or minders, so it helps out a lot."

Saitounodded, he could only imagine, though it did leave one question. "How . . ." How exactly did one tell that someone was really the age they'd originally claimed to be. A child would get found out eventually imitating an adult, it wasn't necessarily true in the other direction. But before he could get further in asking the question, another interruption arrived from above.

"We found you!" A Spriggan boy, plummeting through the air, flared his wings at the last moment, landing with a solid -thud- beside the Imp and reaching out to grab hold of her skirt. "Got you!" The boy cried out with delight. "I win again!"

"No fair! No fair!" A Puca boy complained as he landed a moment later with a good deal more caution. "She wasn't really trying to hide this time! That one doesn't count, it's still a tie!"

"It does too count!" The Spriggan huffed, turning quickly to Saito. "Say, Nii-chan? It totally counts, right? It doesn't matter if she's out in the open, right?!"

"It doesn't count!"

"Does too!"

A sharp whistle broke the two boys up as efficiently as a charging boar type mob. Both came to sharp attention. "Members of the Junior Branch, attention!" The Imp girl called sharply.

Junior branch? Saitouwondered. But it seemed to be working.

"Y-yes ma'am!" Both boys stood stock straight.

Looking the two over she nodded seriously. "Sorry, but I have to help this guy find Irene-sensei so Miska was right, it doesn't count this time. Sorry Deimo-kun."

"So you can show me where to find her?" Saitoufelt mildly relieved. This should be simple enough after all.

The girl crossed her arms confidently. "Of course! You're looking at Two Star Licensed Courier Konno Yuki of the Guild Sleeping Knights. Just leave it to me!"


	3. Chapter 3

Author's Note: To the Creepers Trying to Pair the two year old AI in the body of a nine year old little girl with the eight year old man in the body of a fifteen year old boy . . . That made more sense in my head . . . Stop It!

Well then, this was fun, if a little bit generic and predictable. But sometimes you need generic and predictable. At least, that's what I think.

Now, onto the conclusion of the side story. Please standby for your regularly schedules Halkegenia Online v3.0

* * *

Halkegenia Online – Arrun Parallel Stories – Melancholy Hearts - Part III

True to her word, Yuuki had been quick to make herself useful. Saito had explained his business, that he was in possession of her Sensei's lost handbag and that he hoped to return it and retrieve the one belonging to Nanami.

Yuuki had nodded vigorously, taking him by the wrist before practically taking off into a sprint, it had been all Saito could do to keep up as he was led inside. "Irene-sensei should be around here somewhere, I think. She's usually a pretty early riser, but she and the other teachers got in really late last night, so she might just be getting up." The Imp girl told him. "Don't worry though Saito-san, we'll find her."

"Well, that's a relief." Saito answered politely, genuinely thankful for the help, before turning his attention to their surroundings. "So this is how the Children have been living." Saito said as he followed close behind his guide. He'd heard from the other doctors, but this was the first time he'd had an opportunity to see for himself.

Arrun Home had been founded out of one of the larger guild halls, buildings meant to act as bases of operations for large groups of players organized into Guilds. The interior was furnished with a multitude of rooms so that each guild member could be provided with a personal, customizable space to keep their equipment or simply hang out with friends.

After the Children had been moved in, it hadn't taken long for those single rooms to be outfitted with basic furniture and the beds to be replaced with bunks so that the children could be dormed two to a room. The better to keep the young Faeries together and at ease in this unfamiliar world, and to give them some sense of connection with one another as a sort of surrogate family.

Peeking through half opened doors, the Sylph youth was able to spot little touches of home in the form of items crafted by the children, colorful curtains, wood carvings hung from ceilings, and hand sewn, stuffed toys piled atop beds. Through one doorway, he even glimpsed a small doll house set up on a windowsill, a dollhouse from which he was sure he saw someone looking back.

The common areas too, entry hall, dining, and living rooms, had been changed by their occupants, decorated cheerfully with colorful banners and drawings made by the children. Shared belongings, books, balls, and board games, were packed tightly onto shelves along the back wall of the living room. Coats hung from hooks in the entry hall and shoes had been stacked neatly in their alcoves. The dining room tables were still half filled with children eating breakfast and talking loudly and happily amongst themselves. Everything looked used, with the small scuffs and scratches that would never have been modeled in game but were to be expected of casual carelessness.

They were making their way back towards the kitchen now, another space changed by the reality of the transition. Kitchens in ALO had been much, much too neat in Saito's opinion. More like models in a demo home, or a children's doll house used to pretend, rather than a functional space that was actually used to prepare food.

Arrun Home's kitchen couldn't have been further from that virtual ideal. It was noisy for one, filled with the clang of metal implements and the slopping -clank- of plates being washed by hand. It was also crowded, cluttered up with pots and pans hung from hooks on the walls, mason jars lining open cabinets, counter tops cluttered with cutting blocks, knives, ladles, spatulas, and all of the other things needed to make a meal. Saito was impressed. He imagined that with what was contained in the kitchen, someone could make almost any sort of food that had been possible in ALO.

Another thing that separated the kitchen from its formerly sterile virtual existence was the smells. Not just one or two simulated scents, a medley all mixing together into something that was impossible to describe. 'Just what had they had for breakfast?' He wondered as his nose scented in on the distinct smells of leafy herbs. Whatever it was, it smelled wonderful and reminded Saito that he'd skipped breakfast.

Mostly though, it was the people. A normal MMO kitchen would have only been home to one person, the NPC or Player chef. Using the game controls, cooking for one person or one hundred made almost no difference. But real cooking was a collaborative effort as much as anything. Terrible as he was in the kitchen, Saito could still wield a knife well enough to cut herbs and vegetables, and here it was no different with over a dozen young Faeries filling the room.

'More of the dorm helpers.' He noted the armbands worn by three of the children and the brightly colored handkerchief tied up in the hair of a grown Puca woman who was supervising.

"Hey Yuuki-chan!" One of the helpers, a fiery orange haired salamander boy with bright red eyes, stopped his work long enough to smile and wave. "I didn't see you at breakfast this morning. We've still got some leftovers."

Yuuki returned the boys greeting. "Good morning Jun, and no," shaking her head vigorously, "I'm heading out pretty soon, so I thought I'd get a bite in the market with Shiune and Nori."

"Oy, you get to have all the fun!" The boy pouted.

"That's the life of a courier for you. Full of romance and adventure!" The Imp girl stopped her triumphant grinning, turning serious again. "Say, have you seen Irene-sensei this morning?"

"Irene-sensei?" The boy named Jun gave a small shake of his head. "No . . . wait, I think Tarken was showing her something. I know he was doing something up on the roof of her room yesterday while Takai and Ophelia-sensei kept her busy. I think it was a birthday present from the crafters. I don't know what he needed all that black paint and pipe for though ." The salamander frowned. "Guess it was supposed to be a surprise. Hey", he turned to the Puca woman, "Ophelia-sensei, have you seen Irene-sensei this morning?"

"I think she's still in bed." Turning to face them, Saito recognized the woman from the night before. She was indeed the Puca who had been with Irene at the Dicey Cafe, and now looked on with sleepy hazel eyes. "We got in really late last night. Irene-chan and I had to go back to the restaurant because she lost her handbag . . ." Ophelia explained, pausing as she caught sight of Saito. "Oh . . . you're that Doctor from yesterday. The one who helped out Irene-chan and . . ."

Saito smiled as he held up the purse. "Actually, I just came to return this to its owner and get back the one belonging to my friend." He supplied helpfully. "If it's around here, it's best if I just take the other one back right now." No need to bother that young woman. If she was busy running a place like this, her friends had been right last night to urge her to relax a little.

"I see, I see." Ophelia nodded tiredly. "I don't think Irene-sensei put it in the normal lost and found, I think it's up in her room. She was going to take it to the watch HQ while she was out shopping . . ." A quick shake of her head. "You can go up and take a look if you like. Yuki-chan, you still have your key, right?"

The Imp girl replied with a small nod and a pat of her pocket. "Un, the one Irene-sensei had made."

"Then go ahead, I know Irene-sensei trusts you." Ophelia gestured before turning back to her work in the kitchen. "Oh! Gauri-kun, can you make sure the embers are damped out in the bread oven? Then take the ashes out back please. Miska-chan, I'll help you with putting those away!"

"Come on." Yuuki was tugging at Saito's wrist again, setting off for a stairway that led up to the second floor.

"So you're a Doctor, Saito-sensei?" Yuuki asked. "A medical doctor?" There was a small pause as the cheery smile faltered. "Sorry, I'm guessing, you seem like you'd be a doctor of medicine."

"Yes. At the hospital." Saito confirmed. "I'm . . . well I suppose I'm the chief of medicine now. Is something funny about that?" He noticed the change in Yuuki's countenance. Her smile had returned, and also her mirth.

"Sorry. I'm really sorry." Yuuki started to giggle. "I was just thinking, a cute Doctor coming to see Irene-sensei . . . And also a real gentleman." Saito flushed. Cute? It wasn't that he hadn't heard it before, Nanami's kind words and Kiriyu's teasing. But there was a world of difference hearing it from this girl. Yuuki's eyes sparkled. "It's like something out of a manga. I bet Saito-sensei is really popular with girls too."

The Sylph shook his head ruefully. "Not really . . . Just one actually." Just one, very special one, a long time ago.

Saito had entertained the idea a few times. He knew there was no shame in finding someone else, and that it would not have lessened his love for his wife. But he hadn't been able to endure the thought of going through that sort of loss again. And besides, even if he had, that time of his life had been long over, even before Musumi had passed away.

"Oh?" Yuuki looked confused, suddenly her eyes went wide. The small Imp stopped so suddenly that Saito nearly slammed into her. "Oh. Oh . . . Saito-sensei, I'm sorry." Yuuki spun around with the same speed and grace she'd exhibited in the yard, nearly causing Saito to fall back off of the landing, a pained look in her cherry eyes.

"No, not at all." Saito told her gently, steadying himself with a hand on the banister, falling so easily into the old routines, comforting patients, parents, sons and daughters, it was something he had grown very good at.

"It was because of the Transition . . . Wasn't it." Yuuki looked to the side. She appeared almost ashamed. "It took you away from her."

Saito blinked, ah, so she thought . . . "It's nothing like that Yuuki-chan." Saito placed a hand lightly on top of the girl's head. "Actually, she's been gone for a long time before the Transition, so I've cried all my tears already. And besides, you shouldn't feel bad about bringing it up by accident."

Yuuki listened, nodding her head slowly. "But still . . ." She fell silent as quickly as she had begun. The bright sun that was Konno Yuuki seemed to have been veiled by an overcast of gloom. "Hey, Saito-sensei . . ."

"Yes?" He tilted his head.

"How do you . . . ?" Suddenly, the Imp girl lost her nerve and shook her head. "No, never mind. Let's get you to Irene-sensei's room, I have to hurry to Arrun Tower after this."

Yuuki kept moving forward, smile returning, but Saito couldn't exactly say that it was like nothing had happened. She appeared quieter, more subdued, she'd lost her brightness, and there was nothing he could do to bring it back. He wondered who she had lost, or maybe who she had left behind.

Up to the third floor, and then the fourth, more dormitories. When Saito asked, Yuuki told him that the classrooms were located in one of the out buildings along with the workshops where the children were allowed to practice their trade skills and teach them to others. They were permitted to use their allowance money to buy materials and make goods for sale or they could get permission to join an apprenticeship down in the market. Either way they got to keep their earnings, but they had to save half of their profits for a 'rainy day'.

"Irene-sensei wants to teach us all to be responsible with our money." Yuki explained proudly, the excitement of a young woman earning her own wage for herself for the first time.

"Oh?" Saito smiled politely. "It seems like Irene-san is a very responsible person."

"She's amazing." Yuuki asserted. "After the Transition, Irene-sensei flew to all of the Cities to find the children who didn't have anyone to take care of them. She brought all of us together." The Imp girl said softly. "And she works so hard to keep us that way. We just want to do what we can to help her."

"So that's why everyone seems so well behaved." The Old Doctor inside of Saito chuckled softly. Selflessness was such an easy thing for children to grasp. "That's a very noble sentiment Yuuki-chan." A little bit of her real smile returned shyly to her face.

They came to a stop before a heavy wooden door located in the far northern corner of the Guild Hall. If Saito hadn't got turned around, then they would be just below the stout tower that rose to form a fifth floor. A little placard beside the doorway displayed a caricature of a blue haired Undine wearing a scholars cap with the words Irene-Sensei's Charming Suite written in hand lettering.

"It used to be the office of the Guild Master." Yuuki said. "Giving it to Irene-sensei was the least we could do."

"And you're sure we can just walk in?" Saito wasn't so confident. Propriety if nothing else demanded he question entering a woman's bedroom without her permission.

Yuuki on the other hand appeared completely confident. "It's alright as long as you're with me, Saito-sensei. If she's not here I have permission to use my key."

Reaching out, Yuuki wrapped gently on the wooden door and then waited, arms behind her back, for an answer. When none was forthcoming, she knocked one more time and again waited. Yuuki dug around in her pocket before retrieving a key. The lock turned with a heavy -click- of its internal mechanisms. "Irene-sensei, if you're here, I'm coming in with a guest!" She called out loud and clear.

The door swung open smoothly on its hinges with barely a sound, Yuuki almost falling forward in surprise. "Ah! Tarken must have fixed it when he was here. Come on Saito-sensei, this way." Yuuki waved him towards the spiraling staircase that led to the top of the tower.

"I wonder if this building is based on anything?" Saito mused as they climbed the wrought iron steps.

"Like IRL?" Yuuki pondered the question. "Maybe. I heard Shiune and Ophelia-sensei talking about it once. Some of the buildings in Arrun and the other towns are definitely replicas of real world places with an ALfheim facade, but I think Arrun home is its own place." Yuuki grinned. "And even if it wasn't before, it is now thanks to all of us." The Imp girl stepped aside as they reached the summit, gesturing broadly to the room beyond. "And here we are! Pretty neat huh."

"I'll say."

It would not have been wrong to call the place a Fairy Tale Suite, all stone, and glass, and canvas, and fantastical metal work. Saito breathed in, picking out the faintest trace of perfume spicing the air and bringing to mind the garden that he had tended back in Japan until he'd become too feeble to continue.

The room was big, the symbol of a successful Guild's Leader. The floor was polished stone, and the walls were covered in windows. Housed within a partial solarium. The panes that would have admitted direct sunlight were sheltered beneath movable copper panels, forming a partially opaque roof, and the wall windows were shaded by a three hundred and sixty degree awning. A pair of wide glass double doors were opened out onto a wrought iron landing, admitting a pleasant morning breeze.

Footsteps echoed on the stone as they made their way from the stairs.

The space itself was occupied by a large desk, currently littered with papers, a high backed chair and a pair of couches, stacked high with more papers and random bits of equipment, stationary mostly, and a coffee table that was spotlessly clean. They must have been left over from the room's original purpose as an office and meeting place, along with the book shelves that curved along one wall and the now thoroughly useless globe of the Earth sitting beside the desk.

Over beside the doors, a queen sized bed had somehow been wrestled into place, probably with the help of the antique looking pulley system out on the balcony, sharing an improvised bedroom space with a dresser and night stand, a floor ore lamp, plush looking armchair, and a looking glass.

Nor were these the only touches added by the room's new occupant, a Persian carpet was laid out between the bed and dresser, and canvas curtains had been installed around the room's perimeter to provide a degree of privacy. More canvas had been hung from the ceiling to partition off a small alcove near the back of the room, probably as a changing area.

"Looks like she's already left." Yuuki decided, putting hands on hips as she surveyed the cluttered space. "It wasn't this messy last time I was here, just hold on a second. Irene-sensei is usually a really organized person, so I'm sure it's here someplace."

Saito's ears twitches as he made out a noise, familiar, but out of place. "What is that?"

"Hmm?" Yuuki looked over to him. "What's what?"

"That noise?" It sounded like . . . water? Was it coming from outside? No, the distinct -thrum- of water passing through pipes was unmistakable to his ears.

It wasn't hard for him to identify the source. It was indeed a pipe, situated far above their heads where it breached the copper ceiling before making an abrupt turn and following the curve of the one of the supporting beams before plunging down the side of one wall.

"Weird." Yuuki looked up where Saito had pointed. "I never noticed that before. Is it for roof drainage? It's really sloped up there so I wouldn't think you'd need it."

"It wouldn't be out of place." Saito agreed. Things like the drains in the sinks of the hospital almost surely hadn't been modeled with fully functioning plumbing back in ALO. Something had filled in the blanks where the already amazingly detailed environments of ALO had fallen short. But when the devil had it rained recently?

Without much thought, Saito and Yuuki followed the growing noise of flowing water to the windows, from there, it was easy to follow the pipe to where it met with one of the drainage gutters outside. Saito was no plumber, as his children would have been first to attest after a particular incident, but even to his untrained eye, the arrangement was improvised but well made. And in between the roof pipe and the drain . . .

"Weirder and weirder, and that noise . . ." Yuuki muttered, turning to the canvased alcove and the muted gurgling beyond. "I bet Tarken's made a mess in here and hasn't fixed it yet!" The Imp girl looked slightly annoyed just as Saito sluggishly made the last connection. "Oy." Yuuki sighed reluctantly. "Irene-sensei going to be mad. But I guess there's no helping it, I might as well see the how much damage he's . . ." Yuuki grabbed hold of the canvas divider . . .

"Wait!" Saito began, grabbing at Yuuki's wrist . . .

" . . . Done!"

The two Faeries stopped dead. Saito for one was thankful for his new heart, otherwise it might have given out on him.

Back turned, completely oblivious. Eyes closed and lost within an inner bliss as the water poured down from a spigot suspended overhead, falling into an improvised basin constructed from the bottom half of a wine cask, swirling as it drained out through the pipe cut into bottom. All she wore was the lukewarm water showering down on her.

Hair soaked a perfect blue, wetly clung to graceful neck and slim, porcelain shoulders, water dripping in rivulets from the tips of hair before dividing and flowing along the four translucent blue wings that had extended themselves, seemingly unconsciously to hang limply and follow the line of slender back, the arch of spine, and curve of hips down to . . . down to . . . Well, Saito admitted , the thought coming unbidden and unwelcome to his conscious mind, she was certainly _healthy_.

And at last observant as long ears perked, something shaking her from her inner reverie. The water Faerie Irene turned around, blinking long, soaking wet lashes in confusion. Their eyes met, both freezing at the same time.

"Uh . . . uhm . . ." Irene squeaked.

"I-rene-sens . . . I – Ur . . ." Yuuki looked between them in sudden vivid surprise.

"Ah . . . I . . ." Words wouldn't come.

Saito swallowed as he tried to think of what to do. Pulse pounding in his ears as his temperature started to spike. It wasn't his first time seeing a woman disrobed in the flesh, nor his first time when that woman wasn't his own wife. A doctor learned early to separate dignity from dress and to take an objective approach to nudity. Experience from eighty years of life told him how to act properly. Yuuki was right beside him, turning red as a tomato, all he had to do was step back, look away, and explain himself and this could all be defused.

The problem was that, while his experiences said he was eighty years old, his body was very urgently insisting that he was fifteen, reminding him that he was a man, that he was a _boy, _and that the person before him was very definitely a girl. So Saito did the only rational thing he could think of at that fool moment.

The Undine teacher had snapped out of her own shock, throwing arms around her chest, eyes growing wide as her tiny squeaks began to grow into a full lunged scream. Face growing as red as the eyes of the Imp beside him, Saito squeezed his eyes shut and thrust the purse into its owner's wet hands.

As it happened, this simply gave Miss Irene something to hit him with.

* * *

"So Shoichi-sensei. If that _is_ your real name." The salamander from the night before, looking much more severe and tacit now that he was no longer under the influence of alcohol, towered over a seated Saito, making a show of the way that he gripped the scabbard of his katana. "Are you sure you want to keep claiming that you were only here to return Irene-chan's bag?"

"Since it's the truth," Saito said calmly, "Yes."

He'd acted against his own better judgment to enter the room without the permission of its owner. He'd take responsibility for that, but he wasn't going to be accused of being some sort of lecher by this man.

What a situation to find himself in, Saito thought. He really should have tried harder to explain himself, but between a furiously apologizing Yuuki and a naked Undine girl bearing down on him, he . . . well . . . he hadn't been in any condition to offer much resistance or explanation. His one saving grace had been Irene's general lack of coordination, it showed in her lack of physical strength and the clumsiness with which she used her Faerie body, likely a casual player then, someone who had yet to fully adapt to their new form. Mostly she'd just made an effort to bash him in the face over and over again with her hand bag, only stopping when Yuuki had intervened to pull her off of him.

Said Imp was seated beside Irene on the bed, the salamander swordsman Takai standing between them and Saito. Yuuki was presently torn between a look of shy embarrassment and struggling not to laugh, while Irene . . . Irene was . . . Saito shook his head as he tried to banish the image of peach against snow white. The young leader of Arrun Home, dressed hastily in a bathrobe, had carefully averted her eyes from Saito and Takai, holding hands lightly to her cheek in an effort to hide a blush.

"Uhm, Takai-sensei . . ." Yuuki started up. "Saito-sensei is telling the truth. He brought Irene-sensei's bag back and everything, see?" The Imp girl patted the azure purse.

Takai narrowed his eyes suspiciously. "A likely cover, Yuuki-san. But all that means is that he spotted Irene-chan last night. He was probably already planning to take advantage of her then." Sneering down at Saito. "Men like you make me sick."

They'd just about had things sorted out when this fellow had arrived, rocketing up onto the balcony from below when he'd heard the screams coming from Irene's room. He seemed to have good intentions, if only he wasn't so frustrating to deal with. 'Ah, now I remember, this throbbing is a migraine.' Saito thought as he rubbed at his temples.

At least the children were being kept out for now, the minders and older dormers watching after the little ones who had been frightened for their beloved Sensei.

"To be honest Takai-sensei, you were there when we met." Irene said softly. "So you should know it couldn't have been something Shoichi-sensei planned. And as a Doctor, shouldn't we at least give him the benefit of the doubt?"

"Hmph. Once Arcadia-chan gets back from the hospital and makes sure he is who he says he is. Sorry, but I still don't trust this guy. As defense instructor, I'm responsible for keeping everyone safe, Irene-sensei. And I can't quite buy it. Are you sure we met him last night?"

Saito sighed, Takai didn't remember. He didn't remember because he had been amazingly drunk last night, which was something of a dubious achievement for any Faerie who had the further enhancement of Battle Healing, as most swordfighters, Salamanders especially, tended to.

"Trust me Takai-sensei," Irene rose up from her bed, "It's him. You can ask Ophelia-chan."

"And Jun." Yuuki added. "They've both seen Saito-sensei and know that I got permission to come in here. Besides, Saito tried to stop me once he realized . . . well . . ." Blushing even more.

Once he'd recognized the sound as a shower spigot. It wasn't a noise he'd given much thought too in the past few months.

ALO had included baths, a luxury made available to players who purchased more expensive homes or stayed at the nicer inns. But showers had been viewed as too mundane to be included in a fantasy game and so had not existed in ALO proper. Those that had come to exist since had been the product of ingenuity on the part of the former players. Ingenuity like the cistern fed shower that had been constructed by the metal crafting dormers to show their appreciation for their Sensei.

A shower seemed like an odd gift, but given what he'd hear of Irene's schedule, having someplace inside of her own home to wash before climbing into bed must have been a tremendous luxury.

"I trust your judgment Takai-sensei." Irene clasped her hands before herself and performed a small bow. "And I appreciate you looking out for suspicious characters." Saito couldn't stop himself from scowling. Saying such things wasn't going to help his reputation. "But this is a case where I know for a fact that you are mistaken. Please go ask Ophelia and Jun if you don't believe me."

It was a sight to behold, the Salamander looking every bit the handsome Samurai, and the demure little Undine standing him down without even batting an eye. At last, Takai relented.

"Hnnn. If you're really sure Irene-sensei."

The Undine girl nodded without hesitation. "Completely."

"Then I have no choice but to accept it." Takai grumbled, but not wanting to look like he was letting Saito off too easily, he shot the Doctor a dark glance. "I'll be keeping my eye on you. If you don't want me to suspect you of something, then try to be less suspicious."

Saito gave a wary nod. Up until now, he'd thought he'd been completely innocuous.

Although they had been at their throats just minutes ago, the trio of young Fae all breathed a sigh of relief as the Salamander departed from the landing, slowing his fall with his wings as he stepped out into empty air. But it wasn't enough to relieve all of the tension in the air. Silence was suspended between them like a fog.

'All because I chose that moment to become conscious of it.' Saito wanted to kick himself, no, Nanami would be plenty able to do that when she heard about this.

In the end it was Yuuki who broke the ice, if only to make her own escape. Her fidgeting growing more energetic, the girl gave a small nod. "Well then, i-if it's alright Irene-sensei . . . erm . . . I have to uhm . . . I have . . . courier duty! Me and Silica-chan . . ."

"O-oh!" Irene perked up, quickly latching onto the change of subject. "The two star dispatches you mentioned last night?"

"Yeah!" Yuuki said quickly as she got up, waving her hands excitedly. "So yeah, I have to go meet with her. Silica's going to be mad if I make her sign the forms all by herself again. So I uhm . . ." Peeking out through one eye, the Imp girl saw her opening, a clear path between where she stood and the landing doors. Without a hint of warning, she kicked off into a sprint, wings flashing as she shot out into the sky. "I've got to go! Be back later Irense-sensei!"

Calls fading into the morning noises as Irene and Saito were left alone. Both most likely thinking the same thing. 'She caused us this embarrassment. And now she's run away.'

Irene recovered from her student's sudden escape, placing a hand over her lips as she smiled and then began to giggle. It was a liberating noise, kind, and soft like water chimes. Not at all the sound of someone who was angry. "I really am sorry again Shoichi-sensei, I've caused another mess for you with my clumsiness."

"Not at all." Saito said quickly, accepting a hand up from the floor. "I'm the one who wasn't thinking straight."

"Except when I started hitting you." Irene corrected. The Undine pulled back the cuff of her robe, examining where she'd managed to scratch his cheek. Pleasantly cool fingers examined the stinging little scratch that had barely managed to draw blood. "Please, I'm not a proper doctor, but I can at least help with that. Better than trying to do it for yourself."

"Oh . . . Of course." Saito presented the side of his cheek to Irene, listening to the melodic chanting as she cast a low level, long duration healing spell. The coolness spread from fingertips, dulling the pain and leaving behind only a faint itch as the magic did its work.

"That one was from the recommended spell list." Saito observed, a list of spells that every Faerie needed to know, posted up on the message boards for easy review. Saito had been the one who'd petitioned for its inclusion in point of fact. A healing spell with low demand that didn't require the advanced knowledge of a healer to use to full effect.

"Un." Irene nodded slowly. "It was hard to learn. I only really started playing ALO to fly, you see." Carefully brushing a strand of damp hair from her eyes. "I wasn't really interested in fighting or magic so I hardly bothered to train in either of them." She shook her head. "I'm a little ashamed, but until I met Takai-sensei and then got support from the Faerie Lords, I couldn't even promise the children protection."

"I suppose it's the same for me." Saito agreed, remembering his first day playing. Thank heavens for Nanami, he'd have been lost trying to navigate the game mechanics without her. "Don't be ashamed. We'd all be lost without the help we've given each other. Just be proud that you can help them in turn."

Irene cast her eyes downward, long lashes shading their soft blue. Lips moved softly as she spoke under her breath. "You're right, I know, but it isn't right for a teacher to need to depend on her students." Suddenly, Irene shook her head. "Ah, but you aren't here to listen to my thoughts. I'm sure you need to get to the hospital." She gestured over to her dresser, pulling open the top drawer, she retrieved a second bag, identical to her own.

"Nymph Scale Purse" Irene said. "I've never seen another one. Mine was a gift from a student of mine who was bowing out of the game, so it has some extra sentimental value." Presenting the bag to Saito with both hands. "That is, when I'm not smacking people with it."

"Not at all. I hope your picture wasn't damaged."

Irene shot him a surprised glance.

Saito stopped and raised his hands quickly. "I didn't mean to pry, I simply couldn't avoid noticing it."

Setting the bag down, Irene opened it swiftly, nimble hands sifting about until she found the small photograph, sighing with relief to discover it was undamaged. "Thank you for this too Saito-san." A smile returning to her lips. "The bag is special, but this is _priceless _to me." Looking back to the photograph fondly.

"She must be someone very special." Saito said the Sensei who had taken that photo for her. It was so easy to see, just by looking at the relief writ on Irene's features.

"You're right." Irene answered, only half paying attention. "Very, _very_ special. I was so proud to work with her."

"And now you're continuing that tradition here." Saito said. "I think it's very noble of you Irene-sensei. It must be difficult at times with the children."

Another sweet giggle, Saito's rebellious heart skipping a beat when Irene smiled back. "Actually, the children are the easy ones. It's all the other teachers who can be a handful. They're all rushing ahead, so eager to help, sometimes they don't quite know how to handle kids. I really wish I had some more level heads around here."

"It's the same at the hospital." Saito agreed. "Amazing talent, but they need more experience."

Both Faeries sighed together

"_Young people these days are just so over eager."_ Said in such perfect sync that at first neither realized the other had said anything.

Then, both suddenly realized what had just been said, looking up at each other.

"_EH!"_

* * *

By the time they were finished sorting things out, Saito's morning had gotten away from him. Since starting his work at the Hospital, he'd never been late for a shift. Kiriyu and the others would probably be getting worried about now.

Rubbing at the back of his neck as he stepped back out into the sunlight of the yard where the children were still at play, at least he'd gotten the purse back.

"Are you sure you're going to be okay walking back to the hospital alone?" Irene asked. Dressed in a blue, floral print Kimono, and carrying a parasol lightly over her shoulder to shelter herself from the sun, she had decided to accompany him to the front gate. "I did hit you pretty hard."

"You're not that strong, Irene-san." Saito chuckled kindly. "And I've taken my knocks before. I'll be fine." Just fine. Without thinking much about it, his eyes began to wonder across her features. Cute, small nose, soft, peach colored lips and clear blue eyes beneath thin blue eyebrows. Very cute, very beautiful he corrected. His mind still struggled to accept that the dainty young woman was in fact closer to retirement than her school days.

It really had been her birthday the day before, Irene had explained, blushing furiously, her fifty first birthday.

Saito hadn't meant to intrude on her private life, but Irene had been happy to tell him. She'd seemed almost relieved when he'd confessed his own age in return, even if she didn't quite believe he was as old as he claimed.

If Saito had actually stopped to think about it, there were probably more than a few individuals with the same story as Irene and himself. He might have been an outlier due to extreme old age, but people from all walks of life played games, even full dive games. There were bound to be a handful among sixty thousand players, veteran gamers who had started on 2D games before the turn of the millennium and never stopped, even a few old fogies like himself, too feeble to get out of the house but desperate for something new and different.

Like Irene who had started playing at the urging of her young pupil, a girl named Aoi who had been one of her students early in her teaching career and who had just so happened to have become a teacher because of her own beloved Sensei.

"Still, I am sorry about this." The Undine repeated her apology yet again. "If there's anything that I can do to make this up to you, please just let me know." Tucking her hands delicately into her sleeves. "I'm just glad to know that we have someone so dependable looking out for our health. Please keep taking care of all of us, Shoichi-sensei." Irene smiled and dipped into a small bow.

"I'm really not that amazing." Saito protested. "The credit belongs to the people working under me. They do most of the real work, I just teach them what I can."

Lord Rute had returned from giving Faerie Back Rides, the stout little Leprechaun telling the boys and girls that he needed to go now. One girl in particular, the tall Out of Time Gnome woman from before, leaned over so that Rute could pat the top of her head like he would with any of the other children.

"He's good with them." Saito observed quietly.

Irene smiled. "Rute-san works hard to help us. It's because of him and Thinker-san that we were able to arrange everything. He likes to check in on the children at least once a week to be sure they're getting what they need. Some people think he's pompous, but he has a big heart too." The Undine girl fell silent for a moment as she chose her next words with care. "This all has been so unexpected, hasn't it? But as long as we do what we can," Irene turned her head to the yard full of happy shouts and laughter, "And as long as we do our best at what we can. That should be enough, right?"

Saito nodded slowly, do what they could to survive and thrive. "Un." If they could all do that much, they'd be alright.

"I won't keep you any longer Shoichi-sensei." Irene began to gently nudge him towards the front gate. "I'm sure you have very important work to get done."

"It's fine. It's fine either way." Saito told her as reluctance took hold. In fact, this little excursion had brought some things to his attention that he hadn't thought much of before. The Sylph hesitated for a moment before turning back around. "Ah, Irene-san?"

The Undine blinked, pale blue eyes shimmering like the spring sea. "Yes?"

"I . . ." Irene tilted her head, waiting for his answer. "That is to say . . ." The way she clasped her hands, slender fingers lacing. Saito closed his eyes and rubbed his temples. "First Aid."

"First Aid?" Irene looked confused.

Saito nodded. What the blazes was he thinking? "You seemed disappointed that you only knew a few spells. Sooth is useful, but we've been trying to get more people qualified in basic First Aid. For that, you'd need to learn the spells and also the mechanics of using them. I assume the children get the normal bumps and scratches."

"And worse." Irene sighed softly, shaking her head. Watching her now, Saito didn't know why he hadn't seen the mannerisms of an older woman. Perhaps because on her they seemed so endearing. "We've had sprains, and even broken bones. Some of the children are still ill coordinated, and they can get very reckless with their wings, but getting them to stop has been just impossible."

"Naturally." Saito agreed. He hardly remember all of the details of his own childhood, but he was confident that he'd have gotten up to all sort of mischief if he'd been able to fly back then. "Undines have a natural talent for healing, it suits your affinities. And there are a few other spells that could be of help in an emergency." Spells that could even be life savers if someone was badly hurt. "I have a little bit of experience teaching healing magic." Saito stopped to correct himself. "Well, my students are better at the magic than I am. But . . ."

"Are you offering to . . . Tutor me?" Irene looked wide eyed.

"I . . ." What was getting into him? "I suppose . . ." Saito finished slowly. He could feel himself getting hot just thinking about how ridiculous he must have sounded. "Actually, it would be a student of mine, Kiriyu is much more knowledgeable so . . ."

"Oh."

"Yeah."

It was even easier to see the blush coloring Irene's pale cheeks. "Well", a hand rose to pull at the collar of her kimono, "It's very generous, but I don't know if I'd have the time . . ."

"Of course." Saito sighed, relieved, and some small part disappointed. "In either case, it's been a real pleasure speaking with you Irene-san." Saito turned to leave.

"Uhm . . . Saito-san." The Sylph youth turned back in time to see the Undine girl covering shaking her head as she lost some inner argument. "I'm glad . . . That we ran into each other. It's considered rude in this place to talk about your other life. Obviously, I knew that there were more people like us, but it's nice to know for sure. If that makes any sense. Knowing that there's others out there is a little liberating."

"Right." Saito agreed. He knew what that isolation was like.

"And . . . Uhm . . . the Hospital is close by." Irene said very carefully.

"Oh?"

"If you . . . If you ever happen to take lunch, we have tea around noon most days. The minders and I."

"So, you're inviting me?" Saito wanted to be sure.

"Un." Irene said soflty. "Hitting you like that, I'm sure I owe you. You could come back ten or twelve times as repayment."

"Ten or twelve?" Saito parroted. What was the logic behind that? Did every scratch cost a scone?

Irene furrowed her brow, thin blue eye brows coming together. "Uhm no, on second thought that's probably too much, it should be maybe seven?" She started to count off with her fingers, a tally that only she could possible understand. "Or . . . eight? If we serve finger sandwiches it should probably only be five erm . . . that is . . ."

"Maybe we can do both." Saito offered.

"Pardon?"

"I'll pay you back with tutoring lessons after lunch." He suggested. "My friends keep telling me to relax a little more. It would be a good change of pace for me, I think. And that way we'd be even."

"R-really?" Irene pressed the palms of her hands together, voice growing excited.

"Really. Just don't make the exchange rate too unfair." Saito warned with false seriousness. "I'll have you know the elderly get very grouchy when they feel they're being taken advantage of!" Saying it like that, Saito could practically feel how ridiculous he must have appeared. But hearing Irene's unrestrained laughter made it all worthwhile.

"Then, I might just take you up on that, Saito-san." Irene said when she got control of herself. "I'll be waiting to hear from you. Now, you have patients."

"And you have lessons." Saito agreed. "I'll see you later, Irene-san."

Parting ways at the gate, Saito was surprised when he reached the corner to see that she'd waited to wave back. She certainly was a charming woman, his antics aside. Saito thought as he adjusted his grip on Nanami's purse, something inside was weightier than he expected, causing the bag to strike his leg uncomfortably with each motion.

It was enough to make him stop and remove the source of the irritation, a small, brown paper parcel wrapped up with twine. It was heavy in his hand, weighty with the density of solid metal. A good thing Irene hadn't been hitting him with _this_ bag.

'To Jii-chan. -Nanami.'

Saito frowned, this was what Nanami had been so disappointed about the night before. He wouldn't have dared to open it without Nanami's permission if not for the already torn paper that ripped a little more in his hand as he tried to put it back, revealing something small, and crystalline and beautiful. Well, he'd certainly gone through enough trouble to earn a peak, he thought guiltily.

Saito felt oddly angry as curiosity got the better of him. "She shouldn't be spending so much money on me." Taking the parcel apart with meticulous hands, if need be he could put it back together and act surprised. That way he wouldn't upset Nanami. It at least partly salved his conscience as he laid the little mechanism bare.

Fitting comfortably in his hand, it was about the right diameter, but much thicker than he would have expected once he recognized it for what it was.

Silver and glass, clockwork and brass, it's skin a tracery of thin, expertly etched lines that made it almost a work of art in itself. The watch face was ivory white and marked with roman numerals rather than the Halkegenian numeric runes. Which meant it had been made by either a Faerie or a local watch maker trying to gain entry to the Faerie market.

A pocket watch.

Had Nanami really been able to afford this? Saito wondered before feeling a second piece of paper folded underneath, a note in Nanami's characteristically neat handwriting.

'Always remember that your time is precious. - Nanami. P.S. Don't get angry, Recon and Kiriyu chipped in too!'

That just meant he had too more people to reprimand, Saito thought as he felt the thick, silver chain built to take the weight of the heavy mechanism. Such a selfish thing to buy for him. He shook his head as he carefully returned the watch to its paper wrapping and placed it back in Nanami's purse. Such a fool, selfish thing. But it was a precious gesture. And maybe if he took the advice, it wouldn't have been needed.

He'd started up again, traveling along the quiet side streets, lost in his own thoughts and feeling surprisingly at peace until fate brought him to one particular alleyway as a brunette headed little girl and her adoptive mother were traveling in the opposite direction.

"Oh, Shouichi-sensei." Kirigaya Yuki Asuna said softly. The young mother of Kirigaya Yui was dressed again for the morning heat, and carrying a large sack, empty, but waiting to receive fresh groceries. And beside her, Kirigaya Yui herself. "What a surprise to see you here."

"Good Morning Asuna-san. I had some business at the Children's Home today. And Yui-chan . . ." Saito stopped.

The brightly cheerful little girl from the day before was nowhere to be seen this morning, instead replaced by a terribly shy child who had very consciously moved behind her mother's skirt. Saito smiled painfully. Had he really been so bad yesterday?

"Oh, that's a strange coincidence. Yui chan has friends there, we were just on our way to visit." Asuna said as she gave her daughter a worried look. "Isn't that right Yui-chan . . . Oh, Saito-san?"

Crouching down so that he was level with Yui's dark eyes. The resemblance to Musumi was just as strong today as it had been the day before. And yet, now that he'd had a little time, it didn't hurt so much to see that face. Just the opposite.

Yui-chan was a beautiful little girl, bright, and warm, and so full of life. And most definitely not Musumi. And yet, she was so like Musumi that he knew for sure that she would fill her life and the lives of everyone around her with love and happiness. And there was nothing better than that.

He was grateful to have met her.

So now he had to do his part. "Sorry about yesterday, Yui-chan." Saito said simply. Big, dark eyes became even bigger and rounder. "I hope I didn't scare you."

Yui gave a very small shake of her head, releasing her grip on her mother's skirt to step forward timidly. She gave him a small smile. "It's okay. You weren't scary Shoichi-sensei." Yui said. "I was just worried I'd make you sad again and . . . oh . . . " The girl stopped as he put a hand on her head.

"I _was_ sad yesterday, Yui-chan, very sad. But it wasn't your fault. I was just thinking about someone I loved very much who has been gone for a long time is all." He explained, pleased with how level he was able to keep his voice, and astonished he had the courage to speak at all.

"Love?" Yui tilted her head, looking up to her mother who smiled kindly. Closing her eyes, Yui smiled with relief. "So it wasn't bad?"

"No." Saito told her. "It wasn't bad. It just hurt for a little while is all."

After hurting for a very long time in his past life, and a very short time in this one, finally he could put it to rest. 'I guess it will be a little while longer before I join you, Musumi.' That was okay, he knew she wouldn't mind. That wasn't the kind person she'd been.

He closed his eyes, and for the first time in years, Shoichi Saito breathed easily. "But don't you worry Yui-chan," he shared her smile, "It's alright now."


End file.
